Expressing Gratitude Maury County Gives Back
Giving back to the community comes with great joy and ‘tis the season for giving. Non-profit organizations have tremendous needs year-round, but the holiday season brings the onset of entirely new challenges. So many of us have learned this past year that circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, but we as a community still have so much to be grateful for. By giving your time, talents, and generous gifts you too can serve the community. Giving back has been a huge factor in helping the prosperity of Maury County and as we all know it is better to give than receive, but more importantly your actions do make a difference.
431 Ministries
431 Ministries’ mission is to “tend to the needs of the overlooked and underserved women of Middle Tennessee, by providing safety and stability, offering hope and a plan for an independent future.” On a practical level, this means sitting knee to knee with a woman coming out of a crisis and hearing her story. It means making connections to churches, jobs, and childcare. And it means making it abundantly clear through mentors, coaches, and letter writers that every single woman is known, seen, and loved.
This year, 431 Ministries expanded into the area of grief care by providing a safe space for women grieving the loss of a spouse, either through death or divorce. The Hope in Healing retreat and support group gave 6 women the connections, tools, and space to grieve their losses and rebuild their lives with a specific support system who understands exactly what they’re going through.
431 Ministries recently purchased their first location, a 5000 square foot building on US 431 that will offer employment, counseling and childcare for women who need it. But more than that, it will provide empowerment, healing, and hope for a better future. The building will be a challenging project – the roof repairs alone will cost $100,000 and raising money for the renovation on top of normal programming costs that continue to grow is a monumental task. It will take the community to help, but USA Today started them off with a $10,000 grant through the “A Community Thrives” campaign.
Everyone needs to know that they are known, seen, and loved by someone. 431 Ministries is making that happen, one woman at a time. To join in their mission, or to give towards the work they do, visit 431house.org.
Boys & Girls Club of South Central Tennessee
Since 1999, Boys & Girls Clubs of South Central Tennessee has been at the forefront of youth development, working with young people who need the Club most to provide what they need. BGCSCT is dedicated to making middle Tennessee a better place to live and work by ensuring all children who walk through their doors graduate from high school ready for college or employment and reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. With 14 locations across Maury and Giles Counties, BGCSCT now serves more than 1,200 kids each year.
Demand for the Club’s services is ever-increasing, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to all the services provided during a normal year, the Club is now also providing academic and social emotional learning (SEL) programs to help youth combat learning loss and mental health challenges caused by COVID.
For the last year and a half, the Club has extended its program to provide free childcare for essential workers, healthy summer meals, remote learning support, summer tutoring to combat COVID learning loss, and more. With all the mental and emotional turmoil caused by COVID-19, the Club is also focusing on emotional wellness for the youth it serves. Kids in our community are struggling and they truly need the Club now more than ever before.
This holiday season, you can support the Club by making a donation at bgcsctn.org or donating toys and games to help us provide a gift to every child during the holidays. Call (931) 490-9401 for more information.
Center For Hope
The Center of Hope was established by the Business and Professional Women’s Association of Columbia in 1989 and last year served more than 1,500 people in four counties. It is a refuge providing direct advocacy, counseling, and residential services to victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, stalking and human trafficking. The goal is to provide meaningful support while addressing the attitudes and behaviors which allow violence to continue in our community.
It is important to note violence and abuse can impact anyone, regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. According to recent statistics, one in 4 women and one in 12 men have been victims of domestic violence and abuse. With the emergence of COVID, the issue of abuse has been compounded impacting vulnerable children and families. During these times the Center has continued to work to put an end to domestic violence and sexual assault and as always, all services provided are strictly confidential and offered at no charge.
Recently Executive Director, Cindy Sims, was honored by the community and named Citizen of the Year in the Best of Maury County 2021 contest. As Sims continues to raise awareness about the organization, this past October the Center hosted the first Light the Way Lantern Festival in Lawrenceburg and hopes to host the New Year’s Eve Mule Drop ceremony in 2022 on the square in Columbia.
During the holidays a multitude of volunteers, in a variety of capacities, are needed to help. By offering to pet sit while victims are in shelter, sponsoring a family for a holiday meal or donating holiday gifts, your support will make a difference. The Center of Hope also relies heavily upon the generosity of the community by making monetary donations, donating phone cards, gift certificates and even bus tickets. For additional information about the services, programs, or to volunteer call (931) 840-0916 or visit CenterofHopeTN.org. The 24-hour hotline is available by calling (931) 381-8580. Take a stand. Break the silence. End the cycle.
The Family Center
The holiday season is a very busy time at The Family Center seeing more people between the months of October and December than they see all year. Along with the regular financial assistance programs and food support, The Family Center offers free frozen turkeys and a box of side dishes for Thanksgiving. In addition, they provide gifts to Maury County children through their Santa’s Workshop program for Christmas.
As you can imagine, many volunteers are needed to help serve the community especially this time of year. Last year, The Family Center provided 744 frozen turkeys to Maury County families and had a list of sides they wanted to give as well to complete the turkey dinner. Volunteers are needed to help process the food as it comes in and goes out, the community is needed to help provide those turkeys and sides for distribution, and finally help is needed distributing the food items to the community.
Santa’s Workshop is The Family Center’s favorite program. Unwrapped toys are collected all year to give to Maury County children and then it takes weeks sorting these gifts for parents to pick from. On average each child receives three presents, a book, a stocking stuffer, an article of clothing, school supplies, and a stuffed animal. In addition, families are also provided a roll of wrapping paper and a ham for dinner. Last year, 915 children were provided gifts and whatever is left over goes to The Boys & Girls Clubs to distribute as gifts or rewards. That’s probably the best part of Santa’s Workshop, helping two organizations at once!
If you would like more information on how you can help The Family Center this holiday season visit familycenter.org or contact Teresa Prinzo at 931-388-3840 or via email at teresa@familycenter.org.
The Well Outreach
When life circumstances have your back against the wall, and you’re out of resources and solutions, where do you turn? Sadly, the reality is that hundreds of families in Maury County are faced with this question every day. Trying to find good answers for these families is the heartbeat of The Well Outreach, a food and resource nonprofit located in the heart of Spring Hill.
The Well was started out of a small garage at Wellspring Church in 2006 and has since grown into a full-scale nonprofit serving food to 400 or more families each month in the pantry alone. Other services offered at The Well include a weekend meal plan for students called a “Jetpack” providing breakfast and lunch to students with food insecurity, and monthly Mobile Food Pantries throughout Maury County. Through these programs The Well is infusing over 700,000 pounds of food into the community each year.
The Well operates with a key philosophy in mind: It takes a community to feed a community. Instead of seeking to solve problems on their own, The Well advocates for the poor by telling their story and finding churches, individuals, and businesses to come alongside and help create solutions and opportunity. With this strategy in mind, The Well has brought countless churches and businesses into community with one another in solidarity with the poor.
Alongside Executive Director Shelly Sassen and a small staff, The Well is run by a team of amazing volunteers who help create the warm and inviting culture offered at The Well. Volunteering at The Well typically runs around 1,000 hours monthly with new opportunities available to join the team coming around often. This means there are plenty of great ways to jump in and serve. Curious to find out what The Well will do next? Follow them on social media @thewelloutreach or attend a walk-up orientation held every Wednesday at 2:30PM to get more information and connect to serve.
A special thanks to Terry Smith for providing the inspiration and helping gather the content for this feature.