Local Outreach
Part of our mission is to consistently reach out to the neighbors in our community who are stuck in generational poverty. We believe that building relationships with families gives us a better perspective into their lives and allows us to meet them wherever they are in life. That's not something can happen after meeting a person one time.
Our monthly outreach and yearly events allow us to continue to invest in both children and adults. By engaging in the community so often we are beginning to learn what our next steps should be to break the cycle of generational poverty.
Our current efforts are focused in large in the Southern part of Bartow County. For the most part, Bartow county is a prosperous place, however there are large pockets of poverty that exist and the greatest of these is located in the southeastern part of the county known as the Allatoona Community. While widely considered to be a rural area, Allatoona is the second most populated part of the county boasting a population of roughly 3,000 people in a very small geographic area, making them “rural urban poor”.
There are a myriad of issues from housing, to education to healthcare. All of these issues prevent the population from taking advantage of many of the economic opportunities that arise as business grows in Bartow county. These factors and others have contributed to widespread poverty. When examining median household income, 15% of Bartow county residents are living under the poverty line (15,000 people) while 32% of residents in Allatoona live under the poverty line. It is our belief that a concerted effort to address these issues long term will result in real social and economic change for the better. We believe that our organization, the BLESS Coalition, is well suited to help address these needs.
Whether you are a business, individual, community group or church, outreach looks different to everyone. Whatever your gift or passion, there is something we can all do to reach those hurting in our community.