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Adopt-a-Family for the Holidays with CAC
CAC's Adopt-a-Family for the Holidays is back! Every year CAC connects families in need with "adopters" that spread holiday cheer. This year, due to Covid-19, we're doing things a bit differently. For the safety of donors, volunteers and clients, CAC will not be collecting and distributing gifts, but rather asking adopters to make donations for gift cards. CAC will purchase the gift cards and distribute them to the adopted families so that parents may purchase gifts for their children. View families available for adoption on our website. After selecting a family to adopt, donors will be directed through CAC's secure online donation system. Adopt-a-Family serves only local families who have qualified for and received assistance from CAC in 2020. Please consider helping a family in need this holiday season.
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High Volume of Calls for Help Continue
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CAC continues to receive a high volume of requests for assistance due to the pandemic. Our financial assistance team is working as fast as they can to return calls and help as many families and individuals as possible. More volunteers are needed to work with clients, many who are facing eviction and have run out of options, like Alice, a single mother of 3 young children who recently contacted us desperate for help. Alice worked in a call center and was laid off when COVID hit in March. Since then she has worked multiple waitress jobs, often for tips only, but couldn't make ends meet, all the while looking for better paying work. With rent and fees mounting up and no child support she and her children faced eviction. Fortunately, she found CAC. CAC has a good working relationship with many apartment management companies in the area. They know the difficult times many of their tenants are facing and they don't want to see them become homeless. CAC is able to negotiate with apartment companies on behalf of our clients, to reduce or eliminate fees, pay back rent and put payment plans in place. Helping our clients stay in their homes eliminates the trauma and upheaval caused by evictions and is less costly than helping a homeless family get back on their feet. CAC helped Alice keep her apartment. She started a new job in October that is more steady and continues to look for full time work. She hopes to get hired back by the call center at some point. Donations from supporters like you are directly helping Alice and many more families in our community. Thank you!
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Seeking Volunteers to Help Neighbors in Need
CAC is in need of volunteers to work remotely with clients seeking financial assistance and to teach ESOL classes online. ESOL classes meet weekly for 2 hours, morning or evening.
Remote Financial Assistance
Online ESOL Teachers
Food Pantry Outdoor Market
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Shop Upscale Thrift for the Holidays!
Upscale Thrift will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday,
Thursday - Sunday, Nov. 26 - Nov. 29, reopening on Monday, November 30.
Shop at Upscale Thrift, CAC's upscale thrift shop, for the holidays. Find seasonal decor, clothing and unique gifts! Come and shop. Bring donations of gently worn clothing and home goods. Volunteer with us in the donation center or on the retail floor!
CAC Upscale Thrift
8607 Roswell Road
Sandy Springs GA 30350
Shopping Hours
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:30 am - 1:30 pm
(Retail store shopping hours open to clients and the public.) Donation Hours for Clothing & Home Goods
Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 1:30 pm
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COVID-19 Assistance by the Numbers
From mid-March through the end of October CAC has distributed more than $1.5 million in rent and utility assistance, helping local families stay in their homes through the pandemic. CAC is pleased to announce a $535,769 grant from the city of Sandy Springs as part of the federal COVID-19 pandemic response program! The funds will provide further COVID relief to residents in the coming months who are experiencing job and wage loss due to the pandemic. Requests for assistance continue to be much higher than on average. CAC is distributing an average of $1,200 per household for rent since April, helping an average of 143 households a month compared to 56 households a month in 2019. CAC volunteers continue to serve our neighbors with compassion during these difficult times. This is who CAC has helped through the end of September:
- 9,221 individuals from 3,397 households/families.
More than half of them are new to CAC.
CAC typically helps about 6,500 individuals a year.
- 1020 households with rent assistance totaling $1,547,742!
Compared to $294,380 for all of 2019.
- 1,757 households with food, distributing 509,132 pounds of food.
Many of these households received food once a week.
- Distributed 4,345 lunches to children
- Delivering food to senior citizens, medically fragile or home-bound individuals each week.
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Take Part in Giving Tuesday with CAC
Join the international day of charitable giving on Tuesday, December 1 with your gift to CAC! Adopt-a-Family for as little as $30 for a child, or give more to help a family in need due to the COVID crisis. Be part of the global movement and help a neighbor at the same time!
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CAC, Food Pantry, Upscale Thrift and the Dunwoody office will be closed for
the Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday - Sunday, Nov. 26 - Nov. 29.
Reopening on Monday, November 30.
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Helpline 770-552-4015 - Online Request
Food Pantry - Upscale Thrift
8607 Roswell Rd, Sandy Springs, GA 30350 Branch Office
5 Dunwoody Park South, Bldg 5 Suite 113, Dunwoody, GA 30338 (for food only)
Mailing Address PO Box 501298, Atlanta, GA 31150
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Funding for CAC is provided in part by the City of Sandy Springs, Fulton County Human Services
and the United Way of Greater Atlanta.
The Community Assistance Center (CAC) brings together the Sandy Springs and Dunwoody communities to provide compassionate assistance to neighbors in need by providing financial support, helping to meet basic needs and promoting self-reliance. CAC works to prevent homelessness and hunger locally with the support of 28 congregations of all faiths, public and private grants, civic organizations, schools, businesses and individuals. Supporters provide financial resources, in-kind donations and volunteer manpower.
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