- [Announcer] Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation, the Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- On today's show, we'll learn about two impactful nonprofits.

One is fighting to break the cycle of poverty, and the other serves a homeless population in our area.

We are stronger together, Chattanooga.

Stay tuned to learn more.

(bright music) Welcome to "Chattanooga Stronger Together."

I'm Barbara Marter.

Hope for the Inner City exists to help those who live in poverty and to equip them to escape it.

Anthony Watkins is Executive Director.

Anthony, thank you for coming in today.

Tell me what is Hope for Inner City?

- Well, first off, thank you Barbara.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Hope for the Inner City, it's a ministry in East Chattanooga.

It has been in existence for probably about 50 years.

- Wow.

- It had some iterations.

Started in the early seventies.

Pastor Randy Neighbors started the ministry with the idea how can we serve our community better?

It was all about mercy.

How can we come alongside people, help them where they are- - Yeah.

- With various needs.

And so since that time, it has just grown and you know, we can talk about COVID and things and with that happening, some of the work we've done changed.

So we're still doing mercy relief.

So that would look like food distribution that we have.

At the beginning helping people just to stay in their homes, helping them with utilities, rent, mortgage, that's another what we actually call mercy ministry.

But the ministry just really exists to meet the immediate needs.

And the idea that you've gotta meet 'em where they are.

- Yeah.

- People in our community.

We focus 37404 and 406 are our primary zip codes, especially with mercy relief.

But all in all, we serve all of Chattanooga.

Anybody who has any kind of needs around food, we have some other services such as dental.

And just more recently we have a vision clinic.

So I'm super- - Oh my gosh!

- Excited about that.

- Yeah.

- [Anthony] And again, we're meeting needs.

- Yeah.

- Some of these needs When you think about poverty- - Yeah.

- When I think about the youth and the families in our community, in most of our areas, 404 and 406- - Yeah.

- You find 50% of the kids, their families are living in poverty.

And so when we think about what we do, and what we can do to help them, you gotta have food.

- Yeah.

- You know, so doing distribution throughout the week, Tuesday through Wednesday, that welcome, anyone's welcome to come into the ministry and get some food.

We have some amazing partners to help us provide the food so it doesn't cost us anything.

- Wow.

- You know, the community is helping us serve the community.

- Yeah.

- And so in the midst of that, we do one day a week where we do deliveries.

So we try to really focus on our seniors as well.

And they can't get to us, so we go to them.

- Yeah.

- So it's a pretty amazing thing, but everything we do is kind of connected.

And so, again, it's that immediate need.

And as we get to know our neighbors, we get to figure out some more of what we can do, 'cause we can't solve all the problems.

We gotta actually understand what they're going through.

And through listening, we get some insights.

So we make these adjustments, hence the Vision Clinic.

If you think about a small budget, if you think about, I've gotta buy food, I've gotta get medicines, those sort of things, what are the first things that people go without?

Dental service, vision care.

- Yep.

- We don't do medical, but all in all, priorities are setting a way just for them to survive, just to get through the day, through the week.

And with families, this can be really challenging at times.

So our doors are open, our hearts are open.

You know, God has really provided a lot for Hope for the Inner City over these years.

And I feel like there's a light on.

- Yeah.

- You know, people come towards the lights and so we're trying to provide as much as we can and serve in our community.

- Yeah.

So you mentioned the dental and the vision.

When you talk about dental, what does that, what does that entail?

- Sure.

Little history.

- Mm-hmm.

- Dr. Roy Williams, back in '85, dentist in the community had the idea, you know, not everybody's getting what they need.

Just the basic needs.

So the clinic has been around for some time.

And so what we do, it's really a cleaning, you know, we just take care of the mouths, we do molars, we do extractions.

And the work is done, you know, by dentists who actually volunteer their time.

- Okay.

- So we just have a facility that has three chairs.

It's a separated space in our building.

Whereas customers, as I say, customers, as our neighbors come in- - Right.

- For service, it's a simple process.

They fill out an intake form, kind of what you would do at a normal dentist's office.

That first visit's really just a consultation.

We look at what they have, we take exams, and for that we do charge $25.

But ultimately what we're trying to do, is set up a plan to restore what's going on in their mouth, their teeth, if they have needs.

And you know, we don't let money, we will not let money be a problem.

- Yeah.

- If they can't pay, we're gonna, again, we're trying to meet the needs.

And if we can just get 'em in the clinic, put a plan together that they can kind of pay as they go.

And so really, it's based on their salaries.

It's a sliding scale, but most of the people that come in, I can think of some neighbors where I can see a full smile.

And when they came in, they didn't wanna smile.

- Oh.

- So it's pretty amazing.

And so we get as much, all our help really from the volunteer dentists.

We're trying to always build those relationships so we can have more service done for the folks that come in.

- And then you mentioned the vision.

- Yes.

- And so that's just now opened and started.

- That's just now opened and started.

We've got a room equipped, just like any optometrist's office.

And again, they come in- - Wow.

- The exams aren't gonna cost 'em anything.

And we're partnering with the Lions Club, that's the organization that really have made this happen.

The president of the local district 12.0, we've just connected.

We've just done some amazing things together.

He really floated an idea.

And I said, that sounds great.

And so we just started working through it all.

- Yeah.

- And we found a dentist who, I mean an optometrist who was extremely interested.

He's corralled, he's got a lot of friends have come along board.

So we've got our first quarter, our dates of the clinic for this year, for 2023.

I mean, I can't get more excited.

- That is so excite, no, that's exciting.

- Yeah, it's pretty cool.

- Because you really are serving.

- Yes.

- It's a servant's heart.

And so you really are serving, I know where you're located at.

You've got a lot of land- - Mm-hmm.

- And so you're gonna do orchards, gardening, something like that?

- Yeah, all of those something like that.

- All of the above?

- Yes, indeed.

- Okay.

- No, we're on about five, almost six acres.

And behind our building, we've already, and it's called the Grow Hope Farm.

I mean, it's just think about life and food and all the things that go around that.

But it's an area where really we're gonna hope to produce enough product to actually, you know, provide food for our neighbors.

So yes, we've got the startings of a small orchard.

- Mm-hmm.

- We have areas we're gonna have some beds.

And we hope to really increase the learning around food.

The food insecurity in our area is pretty major.

There's not really a grocery store there.

Trying to figure out how to help people eat healthier, actually know where their food comes from.

It's amazing, 'cause if you don't know where it comes from, you don't know what to do with it.

You know, what do you eat?

So I'm excited about the opportunities not only to grow produce and have fruits and vegetables, there's areas where we're gonna have flowers.

But more importantly we're gonna be able to try to bring some young folks and kids to kind of learn where their food comes from.

Get some trainings during the summer, some educational programming around that.

But again, if you understand more about your diet, your, and again, we're all focused on really, on wellbeing.

- Yeah.

- And that garden is gonna really provide a space for us to, you know, do a lot.

We've done canning classes, already.

Started doing that, we harvested a good amount of okra at the end of this past season and you know, had a class.

And again, if you know where the food comes from, know what you can do with it, I think you can eat a lot healthier.

So we're just really trying to make people aware.

- Yeah.

- Of how they can live better.

- Yeah.

- And if they have the information, they can actually, you know, survive a whole lot better.

- Let's talk about the urban ministry teams.

- Sure.

- What is that about?

- Again, being in an urban community versus anyplace else, culturally there's just differences, you know, in community.

And for the work that we do, we need a lot of hands and feet.

So over the years, again, it started back early in the ministries, different churches, communities come and actually bring mission teams in.

So we invite them to come.

We actually have our schedules already booked for the season, it's amazing.

We've got such a good response over the last couple of years.

But we get a group that come in for a week and they basically just serve and help us, you know, manage the community or manage to help in our community in a sense.

They come in for a week, they do work in the farm, they do work in the building.

We actually get out and help seniors, we do lawn care.

So those teams are just an extension of who we are.

And they come in and have a pretty good week.

We provide lodging.

They have food that they get from us.

We have a menu.

But it's an exciting time 'cause we get from college kids in the spring to high school and junior high kids in the summer.

And again, they're just what we do, they do with us.

- Yeah.

- And with the extra hands and feet, we actually can get a whole lot done.

A whole lot done.

- So with these urban ministry teams, what if a neighbor needed, say the front porch rebuilt or a chair ramp or something like that?

Is that something that these urban ministry teams could do?

- Oh, absolutely.

- If that's a skill set.

- During the summer, we actually budget with our work that we do, home repairs.

- Okay.

- So we don't do serious heavy jobs.

It has to be, it's graded like a green job, maybe a yellow job, meaning the skill that's necessary.

We have built wheelchair ramps, reinforced decks and porches.

We've painted inside and out.

So really, really basic repairs.

- Yeah.

- Renovations on exterior interior homes.

But last summer, over the summer we had probably 240 total volunteers or these teams coming in, spread out through the summer.

And we're actually able to touch 10 homes.

And our neighbors, they just get excited.

They pull up to their house and it's been totally painted.

Or the deck that was kind of lopsided, it's been straightened up.

- Oh.

- So we really try to mix the work up, but we get to know our neighbors by helping them.

And it's amazing 'cause as one neighbor says, well how did you do that?

We meet someone else, and so every summer we spend time with these teams that coming in.

We get into community and really do some home repairs in a way that, again, we wanna start a job we can finish.

We don't wanna leave 'em worse off than they were.

So we just kind of manage that really well to make sure that what we can do, we can do well.

And they're a whole lot better than they were, 'cause they couldn't afford to do some of that work themselves.

- So one of the things I know that we had talked about, you're doing classes now.

You're starting to offer classes in, what is it?

Faith and finance.

- Absolutely.

See that's the deeper dive as we help people with food- - We're bringing you in and then now we're gonna teach you.

- Well, I mean I think it's, you know, people have to trust who they're going to.

So, you know, for one of the things we talk about is how consistent we have to do and have to be as we serve our neighbors.

- Yeah.

- And in doing so, you know, I had a gentleman that says, you know, I asked him about how he was doing, is there anything that he needed?

He says, well I really need some help.

I don't know how to do a budget.

I need someone to help me with a budget.

And I said, well you know what, we do have a class and it's a resource locally.

Chalmers has a program called Faith and Finance.

So being a ministry, you know, trying to serve our communities, Jesus as he served community, we're trying to do the same thing.

- Yeah.

- And so we can help them understand how to manage their money.

- Yeah.

- I hate to say you don't have to come back and see me.

It'd be nice if you did.

- Yeah, to come on back.

- 'Cause you're learning, right?

So- - Yeah.

- It's a deeper dive.

- Yeah.

- You know, getting to the mindsets of people.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause a lot of times where you are, you just don't find a, have a way out.

- Yeah.

- You can't find that way.

- I know.

- Some learning is like anything, if you learn a little bit, you're gonna be a little better.

So these classes are 12 weeks.

- Yeah.

- We're gonna start this spring in March.

- Mm.

- So I'm so excited about that.

So we're all recruiting.

- Yeah.

- We're gonna have elderly, we're gonna have some young folks.

Everybody needs to know how to manage their money.

If they can do that, they can- - They do.

- You know, life is a little better.

- Yeah.

- You know, as they move along.

- Well Anthony, I'm excited about the vision that you're bringing as Executive Director.

I think you've been there what, maybe two, two and a half years now?

- Two years, December was two years.

- Two years, all right, I was on that one.

- You were.

- But I like the vision and the management skills and the opportunities that you're bringing and fulfilling the original ministry.

Not just mercy, but you're being the hands and the feet in the community, bringing the community together.

So thank you so much for coming on today.

- You're quite welcome.

- And sharing about Hope for the Inner City, so- - Thank you.

- I wish you the very best, so.

- Well, it's been a pleasure.

- Yes.

Up next, we'll talk to Jon Rector from Chattanooga Outreach Union Gospel Mission.

Stay with us.

We wanna know how you serve your community.

Send us photos or videos of you or your family volunteering, and we may feature it on a future episode.

Email stronger@wtcitv.org or use the hashtag, #strongerWTCI on social media.

Welcome back.

We're happy to have Jon Rector with us.

He's the Executive director of Chattanooga Outreach Union Gospel Mission.

This organization serves individuals experiencing homelessness in Chattanooga and the tri-state area.

And they've been making a difference for over 70 years.

Jon, welcome.

So glad to have you here today.

- Miss Barbara, thank you.

- So how long have you been with this nonprofit and why are you with them?

Tell me your story.

- I've been with Union Gospel Mission now for 20 years in a couple months, started in July of 2003.

And so coming up on a 20 year anniversary and you know, honestly I'm with 'em 'cause I don't have a choice.

I've asked God on occasion to make, allow me to do something different, and He says, no, this is where I need you.

And so I try to fish in the pond He put me in.

- Wow.

And so for 20 years you've been faithful to it and everything, I know.

So tell me, where's the campus located at?

- We are right off of Signal Mountain Road just at the base of the mountain near the intersection of Mountain Creek Road in Signal Mountain Road.

124 Signal Hills Drive is our physical address.

- It's a pretty good sized campus, isn't it?

- We've got two, three, four lots right there.

- Okay.

- We operate out of an old Baptist church building and we have a duplex next door for our residential area.

- Yeah.

- And so we're making do.

- So tell me some of the programs that the mission has.

- Our flagship program is what we call our Grace Discipleship Program.

It's a six month residential program.

And so we take adult men who are struggling with some sort of a life controlling issue.

- Yeah.

- Drug addiction, alcoholism.

The last few years I've found that one of the biggest life controlling issues or the biggest addictions is the addiction to bad decisions.

- Oh.

- And you know, whether they're financial- - Yeah.

- Or relationship or whatever it is.

- Yeah.

- But that, none of that, what their issue is doesn't matter.

If they're looking for help for it, we want to help 'em with it.

- Yeah.

- And so we take 'em in and we put 'em through a six month program of Bible study, personal growth.

We try to add a huge amount of accountability.

That's kind of our key, our keystone is being personally accountable for your decision making and your life.

Most people would consider it a recovery program 'cause that's kind of what it's fashioned after.

- Yeah.

- We call it discipleship because our thought is, if your relationship with Christ is right, everything else falls in place.

- Yeah.

- And so that's, that program is designed to be six months long.

There's no charge for that program, if the client doesn't have an income.

You know, if they get a check or whatever, then we do ask that they, you know, give a certain amount.

But once a guy's finished with that program, most of these guys have burnt all their bridges and they don't have any place to go.

And so from there we go into what we call our transitional housing program, which is a Barnabas program.

And it's designed for either our graduates, which is what it was originally developed for, or guys who have come out of another program or maybe they've, you know, been clean for a while, but they've struggled just a little bit and they're dealing with some issues.

And so for 90 days they can come back in and go through our Barnabas program and it's much less structured.

It's kind of just a little refresher course if they need it.

And kind of just a little bit of support for them to get back where they need to be.

And so through both of those programs, you know, we try to help.

Our goal is to take a guy from the street and put him back into productive normal life.

- Mm.

So how do referrals come to you?

How do these, 'cause you're just men only, is that correct?

- It is adult men.

- How do you, they find you?

- Well that's one of the good things of being around for 72 years, 73 years.

People know about us.

And so we get referrals from all the places in town, mental health facilities, other homeless agencies, local churches, you know, anywhere and everywhere people were referred to us.

And unfortunately, you know, with the bed space we have, we end up turning a number of people away every year, which is always frustrating.

- So through the, I believe it's called the Grace Program, the six month, how many men can you take through that program?

- Right now we have five beds for that program.

And they're all full.

And so we've got five guys going through that program.

And I'll tell you, this is one of the best groups of guys we've had in a long time.

I mean, they just really seem to be serious about their life change.

- Yeah.

- And about their future.

And so it's an exciting time.

- So in the day of one of your residents going through this Grace Program, what does a typical day look like for them?

- Our day starts at 7:30, a normal weekday.

They do devotions from 7:30 to eight o'clock every morning.

They're individual devotions, but we have 'em do 'em corporately.

- Yeah.

- And then breakfast at eight o'clock.

And then from there we go into just a normal routine.

It's either work details or class time or by, or their own individual study.

Most of our curriculum is individual study, so they have study guides or books that they have to read and go through and process through.

But we do have classes, you know, group classes that we offer and they have to attend those.

And then we do meal lunch at 12:30.

Then their day pretty much stops around five and we do supper at six o'clock.

And then if we have an evening service or an evening Bible study, they have to be at that.

But we try to give 'em as much free time in the evening as we can to just relax and be normal.

- So if you can, share with me some, some success stories.

- Sure, I'll give you a couple of recent ones and then one a little further back.

One of ours is Mr. Wolf, that's what everybody calls him.

- Yeah.

- Mr. Wolf has been, he actually went through our Grace Program years ago, probably it's more than 15 years ago, because we've been in our current location about 15 years.

- Oh wow, okay.

- And then a few years, about two and a half years ago he came, he reached out to me and he was sharing a house with a guy who was supposed to be helping him financially, you know, with his finances.

- Yeah.

- But he was just stealing from him and they didn't have the money to pay the rent.

All his money was gone.

And he said, can you help me?

And I said, sure, come on back.

And so he's back with us again going through our Barnabas program and he's 72 years old.

- Oh.

- He gets a, you know, he gets a social security and you know, he's done great, you know, and he doesn't have any family, doesn't have anywhere to go.

And so our ministry to him is just to help him through this period.

He's working on getting housing, you know, through the housing urban development.

- Oh, okay.

- And- - Yeah.

- And eventually he'll find a place or you know, as his health declines as it is, you know, he'll go into nursing care or something.

- Yeah.

- But we wanna be there, you know, through no fault, and in his case this time it wasn't really his fault other than just not watching his money close enough, but.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And then we've got, talk about Chris for a moment.

Chris came straight into our Barnabas program.

He didn't go through our discipleship program, just straight into Barnabas program.

He'd had a history of drugs, you know, in the past.

But he had been clean for a while.

He was on probation and was struggling to just keep things together.

- Yeah.

- He had a decent job at the time and was doing okay.

But he just needed some structure.

He needed some support.

- Yeah.

- At that time he had been divorced, his ex-wife had custody of the kids.

And my understanding is that they weren't in a great situation.

He has two daughters.

So he went through our program.

He spent probably about nine months with us, in our Barnabas program.

And matter of fact, he texted me this morning, he stays in touch, he's finished, he's out on his own, he's rented an apartment, he's got custody of his two daughters back.

- Aw.

- He's working full-time at Volkswagen and part-time doing maintenance at the mall.

And he's really just, he's reclaimed his life.

And he'll text me or email me at least once a month.

- Oh.

- And, or hit me up on Facebook or whatever and say, hey, thanks again.

And he's just so grateful for what the Union Gospel Mission was able to offer him.

- Yeah.

- And then Brandon, who's still with us, Brandon he again has a history of alcohol and issues and he'd been through multiple programs.

But just the other day he text me, I don't see him much 'cause he works a lot.

But he text me and said, Brother Jon, this is my one year anniversary.

I've been clean for a year.

- Oh.

- And he's working for a catering company, he's a chef.

Loves what he does.

There's not the stress of the restaurant environment.

He's reunited his relationship with his mom and talks to his mom all the time.

And she lives down near Atlanta.

And so they get together and he's just really doing well.

- Yeah.

- And I'm excited for him.

- So in addition to the Grace or the Barnabas, you also have like three major community events that you do during the year to feed the homeless.

- We do.

It's, we call it our community outreach program.

And there's a couple different aspects to it.

But the main one is on Easter Sunday and then the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then sometime right around Christmas, we go up and set up downtown here.

The last few years has been at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center.

- Yeah.

- They've been great partners with us.

- Yeah.

- And we'll set up and take a hot Thanksgiving meal or Christmas meal, what we consider a traditional holiday meal.

- Yeah.

- Thanksgiving's always turkey and dressing and Christmas is ham and turkey and Easter's ham dinner with, you know, the vegetables.

And we'll serve about 400 folks every time we do that.

- Yeah.

- Thanksgiving this past year we served almost 500 and they just come and set up with us and eat and.

- Yeah.

- For me, you know, I've been doing it 20 years, it's like a family reunion for me.

- Yeah, it really is.

- You know?

You always get those hugs and always get a chance to pray with somebody who may be struggling a little bit.

And so it's just a great environment and we'll give away, especially Christmas and Thanksgiving, we'll give away clothing, blankets, hats, what we call blessing bags, little care packages.

And usually about a month before we'll start getting people to bring stuff and now I don't, I just tell 'em, look, just come down and bring it on the day of.

We used to have 'em bring it to us and we'd transport it down, but it got too big.

And we'll literally give away a couple truckloads of clothing at those dinners as well as meals and personal care items.

- So we have about 30 to 45 seconds left.

I wanna talk about your growth opportunities.

I think that's amazing.

- Well, you know, like I said, we unfortunately have to turn people away because we only have 12 beds total available.

We have the property that we could put a couple of mobile homes on because of zoning.

That's all we can put on it.

- Yeah.

- And we could almost double our capacity.

And so this coming year that's gonna kind of be a big push for us.

We're gonna try to make that happen and just ask God to open the doors and allow us to impact even more lives.

'Cause that's what it's all about, is just, it's the people we help.

It's not about the facilities, it's not about the buildings, it's about the people who are impacted by what we do.

- And you really are impacting a lot of lives.

And I love the fact that you told me about Ron and Brandon and Chris and that's just a tip of the iceberg of the lives over the 20, you know, years that you have been there, that you've made a difference in their lives.

And Union Gospel Mission has made a difference in their lives in reconnecting families and children and everything, so.

- Yes ma'am.

- Jon, thank you so much for being here with us today and sharing your love for what you're doing and what Union Gospel Mission is doing and how it's changing the lives in these men and women and so.

- Thank you.

- And thank you for joining us.

We hope you've learned more about the incredible work being done by our nonprofits.

So, tell us what you think.

Email us at stronger@wtcitv.org or use the hashtag #strongerWTCI on social media.

I'm Barbara Marter, and from all of us here at WTCI, we'll see you next time.

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