Mission of Hope in Walker County for nearly three decades has been reaching out to low-income families and others who need help. But in this pandemic-stricken world, the organization has introduced a new program.
“Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we have seen a lot of people furloughed or their jobs have went away,” said Lori Abercrombie, executive director of Mission of Hope. “We try to connect these families with job opportunities or training that might be a help. Sometimes we provide an education that would help them become productive citizens of the community.”
Mission of Hope assists clients with food and clothing, as well as job training, housing, budget planning and services that may require the help of another nonprofit.
“Mission of Hope has been around since 1992, and I have been with them for 15 years,” Abercrombie said. “I began as a volunteer and would bring my daughter to volunteer with me. I wanted my daughter to be a part of giving back to the community. Our entire family served as volunteers. It was one of the most rewarding things. Now we have over 100 volunteers from all over the community. Those volunteers have become my extended family at Mission of Hope.”
Abercrombie and her staff used to work in close contact with the people they helped. Since the pandemic, they’ve changed how they served the people of Walker County.
Mission of Hope is an Alabama Bright Light shining in Walker County from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
“We had to take things outside. We do a drive-thru food giveaway and curbside clothing assistance. Also the way we communicate with our clients has changed. Now we do it with texting and email instead of one-to-one,” Abercrombie said. “We are still serving the people of Walker County, though.”
Another pandemic response was in automating messages to clients. Abercrombie received a grant from the Alabama Power Foundation to help with that expense.
“The Elevate grant has allowed us to upgrade our computer system. We installed a multimessage phone system to contact multiple clients at once,” Abercrombie said. “We also purchased iPads to take outside and key-in information when we serve our clients.”
Abercrombie has received Elevate grants from the Alabama Power Foundation twice before to help with infrastructure needs at Mission of Hope. These grants and other support enabled Abercrombie and her staff to touch lives.
“There was a knock on the door a few weeks ago. When I opened, this woman handed me a bag of toys and said, ‘You helped our family and gave us toys when I was little. Now I am working and would like to give you these toys to give to other kids.’ I was so touched by that,” Abercrombie said. “Those toys in that bag meant so much to me, because she had gone through the Mission of Hope, and now she was helping others.”
Helping folks who visit Mission of Hope means the world to Abercrombie.
“It makes me so humbled, and it drives me to even reach out to more people and help,” she said.
For more information, visit Mission of Hope on Facebook, as well as at www.missionofhopedora.com.
Alabama Bright Lights captures the stories, through words, pictures and video, of some of our state’s brightest lights who are working to make Alabama an even better place to live, work and play. Award-winning journalist Karim Shamsi-Basha tells their inspiring stories. Email him comments, as well as suggestions on people to profile, at karimshamsibasha@gmail.com.
(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)
