'It Takes a Lot of Courage to Come in Here'

Danielle Reighard-Hancock does not need statistics from the Census Bureau to tell her that homelessness, hunger and poverty are growing problems. She meets those troubles head on, face to face, every day.

“It’s amazing, in Cobb County, the number of families who are living in their cars,” says Reighard-Hancock, 29, an employment and education case manager at the Center for Family Resources on Roswell Street.

“I love Cobb County, and there’s so much that goes on here. People think, 'Oh, it’s such a nice, plush place to live,' but there are places that aren’t so plush," Reighard-Hancock says. "We’re trying to help people get back on their feet.”

Reighard-Hancock knows what that feels like. Her own journey from a housing project in Virginia to her home in Marietta required plenty of help.  

Now, she’s giving back to her community, getting families in need on paths to homes and an education and, most importantly, getting people in jobs.

“It takes a lot of courage to come in here," she says. "Some people are just mortified and embarrassed. But, you know, I say everyone has hard times and it just depends on how we can deal with it.

“I can go to my mom. I can go to my dad. I can go to my church. For people who don’t have that, they have to come to a place like this. They have to call 211, you know?”

Last week the Census Bureau reported that 46.2 million people in the U.S. were living in poverty in 2010, the highest number in 52 years of tracking the nation’s poor.

In Georgia, 1.8 million people are living below the federal definition of poverty—$22,314 a year for a family of four.

As more Americans struggle with long-term unemployment, non-profit organizations such as the Center for Family Resources are stretching their limits.

In the first half of 2011 the center had a 250 percent increase in the number of requests for assistance compared to the same period in 2010, said chief executive officer Jeri Barr.

The center served about 10,000 people last year with its various programs. The center offers long-term housing, education and employment assistance, mentoring for teens and a 12-week series of leadership development workshops.

“The first half of this year has been challenging for this community,” Barr said. “The dollar amount of the requested assistance totals more than $3.8 million. We expect the need to continue to be great given the current economic climate.”

As one of the center’s front-line case managers, Reighard-Hancock meets people in need daily. She had her own times of crisis as a child in Norfolk, Va., living in a housing project with her mother and four older siblings.

“A lot of times she couldn’t take care of me. She was in and out of situations,” she remembers. “Half the time I was living with my grandparents. There were four other siblings older than me. They were all getting into trouble. So a lot of times I was kind of going back and forth, back and forth.”

At age 6, Danielle was moved into a foster home. “My foster family literally taught me everything,” she said. “They taught me how to read, taught me my ABCs and counting. Little things like how to make my bed; things a child my age ought to be able to do."

About a year later her foster family went to hear Ike Reighard, a pastor and motivational speaker from Georgia.

“All the children in my foster family had blond hair and blue eyes. I had dark skin and dark hair,” Danielle says now. Reighard asked, “What’s up with this little girl? She looks just like my wife when she was a little girl.”

Danielle’s foster parents told Reighard her story. At the time her foster mom was pregnant with twins and worried about continuing to care for Danielle. Her biological mother was in a coma after a car accident. Her future did not look bright.

Reighard and his wife Robin talked to the foster parents that day and said they’d like to adopt Danielle. We have this feeling that she should be with us, they said.

At the time Ike Reighard was senior pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville. He is now pastor at Piedmont Church in East Cobb.

Danielle grew up on Lost Mountain, went to Harrison High and has lived in Marietta for about four years. She graduated from Kennesaw State University with a degree in human services. She worked at the Cobb YWCA doing case management and social work with women who were in domestic violence situations.

She’s been at the Center for Family Resources for about a year.

To qualify for the center’s programs, a parent or couple must be homeless, have one or more children under the age of 18 and be ready to gain employment. The center offers a wide variety of help, but the bottom line is getting clients into jobs.

For obvious reasons, family and community are important to Danielle. “My dad is really involved in community stuff," she says. “That’s something that he always taught us (the Reighards also have a daughter two years younger than Danielle.)

“I think I’m in this field because of the way I grew up. I always tell my clients to get involved and stay connected because you have to make those connections to feel a part of something.”

Reighard-Hancock isn’t shy about spreading the word outside the office.

“We have such a good program here. To me it’s just about talking about it—constantly,” she says. “Letting people know how they can connect.

“I love getting people involved. It’s like, how in the world can you live in a community and not get involved. I don’t get it.”