ATLANTA, GA - This past Tuesday at Beacham and Company's weekly sales meeting, Carla Phillips, the Volunteer and Income Manager at Our House, attended as we announced the kickoff of our 4th quarter charity. Carla spoke about the shelter and its good works. Our House is an organization that hosts homeless families in two shelters in Atlanta: Downtown and Decatur. 
In addition to these 18-room shelters, they also have two early childhood education facilities for homeless children. One of the unique aspects of the organization is that it aims to keep families together. Other shelters have restrictions on who may stay, but Our House allows the families to stay together regardless of age or gender. Further, to be allowed into an Our House shelter, families must have a newborn child. During a family's 6-month stay, they are taught practical life skill and coached on how to get a job. The Our House staff helps to find permanent housing and jobs for their residents during the 6-month period, too.
The education facilities are unique in the fact that they allow both children residing outside and inside the shelter to attend. Our House recognizes that finding childcare can be expensive and stressful for some families living below the poverty line. "There are many ways to benefit the Our House residents", 
Carla said, one being the volunteer opportunities like reading school books to children or preparing and sharing a weekend meal with residents. Others include sponsoring a family for Christmas and donating money to help house residents.
The Our House Shelter in Atlanta, Georgia is our last quarterly charity of 2018. Formerly known as the Genesis Shelter, Our House strives to help homeless families stay together, grow in personal development and take the steps toward bettering their lives. Carla so aptly explained that "Homelessness is not who they are, it's just the situation that they are in.” As the largest percentage of homeless people in Atlanta consists of families, Our House is doing their job to help eliminate some of this right here in our city. This organization is truly striving to help those in need by giving people a second chance.
Last year Beacham's charitable initiative made a donation of $25,536 to Our House women's shelter. This was the single largest charitable donation in the company's history and according to Our House the donation funded four families with infants for 6 months at the shelter. Thanks to Rachel Farmer, Beacham Gives Back is believed to be the first charitable giving program of its kind by an Atlanta real estate company. We are humbled to participate in this effort alongside Our House Atlanta Shelter for our last quarter of the year!
If you would like to submit a charity for consideration, you can email us at info@beacham.com. Please keep in mind that charities must be approved by our agents and should give away a vast majority of the money they raise to the causes they support. If you know a Beacham agent, we encourage you to contact them directly about participation in this program.