There was royalty in the room with us on Friday - Miss Georgia Victoria Hill from Canton, GA. After a new charity was drawn for the quarter (Humane Society) and a President Recognition gift given to Past President Cindy Kelley, Miss Georgia spoke to the club for a few minutes. Her social platform for her year is Flip the Script on Foster Care. She supports Angel House which houses females ages 12-20 who are in Foster Care. She has three goals: 1. Raise awareness of foster care in Georgia, 2. Engage business owners to help with the cause by volunteering their services to help, and 3. Find mentors for those in the foster care system. Even though her talk was not coordinated with the speaker, it was the perfect introduction to Yvonne Pryor who talked to the club about Inner City Night Shelter.
Inner City Night Shelter provides emergency shelter for males and females regardless of their past, i.e. alcohol, drugs, sex offenders. It started in 1983 as a soup kitchen then added shelter in the winter months. It currently has a 75 bed capacity, serves 3000 meals per month, and the entire staff are former homeless people. Their budget is less than $500,000 per year and most of the funds come from the community.
The current building is very old so they are planning on moving. They have had plans drawn up of the new facility which will be 7600 square feet. They will be able to provide better services when in a better facility. The new building will be two stories and will also provide 34 units of single room occupancy for permanent housing upstairs. At the end of Ms. Pryor's presentation, the club donated $1000 to Inner City Night Shelter.