Fighting Homelessness in a New Way

Calvin Storey now has a home in Atlanta. He represents a statistic, but one on the good side of the ledger. He’s one of 647 people Atlanta Mission (a Christian nonprofit ministry) helped in 2015 who are no longer homeless.

In metro Atlanta, more than 10,000 people are homeless each night. Lack of affordable housing, poverty and unemployment are the most commonly cited causes of homelessness, says HomeAid Atlanta, an organization that assists Atlanta’s homeless individuals through housing and community outreach.

Nearly 1,000 people a day—including men, women and children—find help through Atlanta Mission’s five facilities. These are people in the situation Calvin escaped from.

Jim Reese, president and CEO of Atlanta Mission, began work there in 2008. He wondered how to create organizational change in what they were doing. “I think God has a bigger plan than [seeing homeless men] coming in and leaving every day,” he says.

In 2014, Jim learned how Stepping Up^®—a 10-lesson series for men created by FamilyLife^®, Cru^®’s ministry to families—was transforming men’s lives in prisons. He decided to go through it with his staff and the 130 homeless men at the mission.

“Millions of men today need the courage to step up to their responsibilities as husbands, fathers, and ​as followers of Christ​ within their homes,​ churches and communities,” says Dennis Rainey, president of FamilyLife. “FamilyLife’s Stepping Up video series offers a biblical vision for manhood and helps a man recognize that without knowing God, he will not understand who he is and what his assignment is on planet Earth.”

Now, Atlanta Mission uses Stepping Up to help men like Calvin.

The FamilyLife resource uses the acronym “STEP” to provide four broad courses of action for men to take: Stand firm, Take initiative, Engage with wisdom and grace, and Plan ahead and provide. From 2014-2016, 420 men have gone through Stepping Up at Atlanta Mission, and 1,138 people have transitioned away from homelessness.

Jim saw the value as much more. He spent his own money to buy 60 copies of the DVD series, and he distributed them to other rescue missions across the U.S.

 Stepping Up is a multi-media resource available as a four-session video event, a 10-week video series for small group study, and as a book. “Stepping Up has proven to be a powerful tool for winning men to faith and then building them so they can go out and win and build others,” says Dennis. “​In short, it is a highly effective strategy for training young men and for men to engage in the Great Commission.​” For information, visit www.familylife.com/steppingup.