Good bye yellow brick road

Well, this concludes my tour of Coffee and Community. Thank you for going along on the ride with me. I hope you all and HandsOn Northeast Georgia continues to do great things! With one closing door, there is always an opening window. Our new social media intern will be taking over the blog and you should be hearing some very interesting things from her very soon.

Thanks again for your time and thanks to all the agencies that participated!

Coffee and Community session 3

Welcome to our third and last installment of Coffee and Community. I set down with Michelle Rabold at Jittery Joe's to discuss what True Love Canine Rescue is up to.

True Love Canine Rescue (TLCR) started in 2008 with Michelle and her husband taking in dogs that were abandoned or abused. As they started to take in more dogs, it began to get expensive to feed, shelter, and provide medical visits for the dogs. Soon after taking on a lot of dogs, TLCR joined the Nonprofit Development Alliance at Community Connections, where they were sponsored by Community Connections under their 501( c)3. A 501 (c )3 are the legal papers that establish a nonprofit. As TLCR has become more developed and established, the organization became our partner for TeamServe, an opportunity for businesses and groups to serve together.

So, what does TLCR do? Exactly what you think they would do. TLCR takes in dogs that have been in shelters for extensive periods or abandoned dogs. The TLCR organization trains special dogs to increase their adoptability and in the long run, ensure a permanent loving home. How do they do this, you may ask? Through a positive reinforcement training of basic skills like creating better reactions to a leash; then, eventually, walking on a leash will increase the social skills and adoptability of these particular dogs.

What the organization really needs, are sponsors. TLCR foots the bill (including a crate and supplies) for the well-being of the dog, but while that special dog is undergoing training he or she needs the comfort of a warm home. Sponsors have to fill out an application and go through a home check to make sure they are the right fit. Additionally, sponsors can help with behavior problems by reinforcing good behavior taught by the trainers.

It has been a busy summer for TLCR as they are going through the process of filing their own 501 (c) 3 –trust me it is no easy task! The TLCR is also having a garage sale on July 24 and all of the proceeds fund the rescue organizations. Donations for things to be sold are still under way and everything that is left over from the yard sale will be donated to the Potter house. This fall the TLCR is adopting a class at Clarke Middle School. The class will develop teamwork around a spay and neuter program. Additionally, Michelle’s next dream is to develop a therapy dog to take to hospitals. Not to mention the annual Pedal for Paws 5k, a doggone good time (I had to do it). TLCR is taking sponsors for the race and individuals can sponsor particular dogs, contact Michelle at or visit the TLCR website at


Ah, the audience participation portion of the evening– well afternoon. We need your help in developing our blog! What are your thoughts of the Coffee and Community sessions? Are there questions unanswered? Perhaps, an over looked organization? Post your answers and one winner will be chosen at random for a surprise gift!

Again, the food featured in the blog can be found on my website (socialjusticeandfood.blogspot.com) and the coffee featured is still the Honeysuckle Latte (If it is not broke; don’t fix it).

Coffee and Community session 2

This particular session of coffee and community took place at Butterfly Dreams Farm with Cat Thompson. The farm is the most visually stimulating, prettiest piece of land I have ever seen. The trail leading to the farm itself is decorated with beautiful painted butterflies with names of campers on it. Right away I was moved, I may be a complete sap, but I was very much moved.

Butterfly Dreams farm is a therapeutic ridding and Hippotherapy clinic for children and adolescents with severe physical, mental and emotional disabilities. Hippotherapy is a medical model that assists with teaching children 2 and older how to hold their head up, walking, and other basic life skills, while therapeutic ridding can provide more social skills and basic riding lessons.

I personally feel like this is such a fun agency because, as a volunteer, there are so many opportunities. You can do practically anything from working with kids to caring for the grounds. We did a family serve at Butterfly Dreams by clearing paths and removing branches. However, there is so much more to do than that. For every Hippotherapy session, the farm needs three volunteers to help the therapists: two to help support the child and one to lead the horse. In therapeutic riding, they need volunteers every time children go out in the ring to ride. It really is so varied what you can do as a volunteer. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer the next volunteer training session is September 10th.

The farm currently has seven horses in use for therapy and riding sessions with one more on the way. Butterfly dreams gets most of its horses on loan and a couple were donated. They get tons of offers for horses, which completely surprised me. However, these horses have to be completely gentle and not scared of anything so they only take 1 out of every 20 they get offered. Cat once had a tree fall right next to a riding ring with a child on a horse. The horse did not even blink -pretty amazing right? “It’s not because the farm is picky”, Cat said “It is because these horses have to deal with kids who will scream, stand behind the horse, and do everything a kid is not supposed to do around a horse.” The farm also tries all of these things when a horse is up for a job at Butterfly Dreams. They scream and have a therapist imitate a seizure to see if the horse can handle it around a child who might actually have a seizure. America’s Next Top Model has nothing on this job application!

So, what is new for Butterfly Dreams? A horse show! The Athens Area Hunters and Jumpers Association is another horse nonprofit and are hosting a horse show where all the proceeds provide scholarships for children who don’t have insurance or whose insurance will not cover the farm's treatments. The show will feature some of Butterfly Dreams own riders. Admission is free and there will be a raffle during the show. Some of the organization’s long term goals are to increase the amount of kids they can have at one time and to get a covered arena. “That is something that we would just love to have. So many of our kids are medically fragile and cannot ride in the extreme weather or rain. We lose so many sessions that way”, stated Cat.

The Horse show is July 10th at the Four Seasons Farm at 1350 Plantation Road in Madison, GA at 9 am. If you would like to inquire about receiving services at the farm please call 706-310-1600. Butterfly Dreams farm can also be found on the HandsOn Northeast Georgia website.





The coffee featured in this session was Jittery Joe's Honeysuckle Latte and any food feature on the blog can be found at my personal site: www.socialjusticeandfood.blogspot.com

Coffee and Community - Session 1

Last Friday, I sat down with Tracie Sanchez, Regina Graham, Courtney Aldrich and Dale Gauthreaux from the Institute of Leadership Advancement (ILA). Over Raisin Bran Muffins, we discussed what the ILA has been up to since last year. The Institute is based out of the Terry College of Business and develops students that have the potential to become future leaders in Athens and around the world. The Institute, and its students, participates in national days of service like Martin Luther King Jr Day, as well as many other forms of service through out the year. In one fall semester, the institute engages 90 to 100 students for service projects through out the area.

Where do Community Connections and HandsOn Northeast Georgia come into play with the institute? Through the use of our website, the ILA can send students to do service projects on those listed agencies. Not only do these students participate in much need service projects, but they come back in their senior year to help nonprofit organizations strengthen their infrastructure and business models. The ILA goals are to provide real world experience through this second, two semester project and have students gain skills in decision making, leadership and self awareness. Some of these projects include a Pen Pals program to help mentor students in local schools, the Cottage’s 5k, and building parameters for our own TeamServe. From the very start, the institute forms a cycle beginning with HandsOn Northeast Georgia posting opportunities to students from ILA fulfilling that need and expanding the agency who then posts new opportunities on the website, all with the objective to provide growth and development through students, programming and organization development.

So where does a program that has been so successful and has build such a name in the community go from here? According to Dale, stay the course of what has worked in the past and try to extend the experience to a wider student base. This year the ILA is expanding to MBA graduate students, which the organization seeks to produce the same driven, socially conscious business leaders that the undergraduate program has produced. The institute hopes to connect students to causes and projects that will keep them engaged as they become alumni. The ILA is also stepping up their media game to reach bigger audiences and raise awareness of their student programs and the Terry Leadership Speaker series. The main goal Dale says in a rough economy is to “do what we do better” without making the institute or its programming suffer due to budget constraints.

Indeed, Dale that seems a worth while goal for a program that provides much appreciated talent and volunteers for our nonprofit community. If you would like to become involved with the Institute of Leadership Advancement either as a mentor or as an agency, please contact Regina Graham, 706.542.8118, or Vikki Clawson, vclawson@uga.edu.

Exciting opportunities

Hello blogosphere,

There are some exciting things happening at HandsOn Northeast Georgia this week and the months to come. This Saturday, the 19th, is our last family service project for the year. HandsOn with Dad is scheduled at Sandy Creek Nature Center at 9 am. HandsOn with Dad is very similar to an alternative spring break idea, where you give back by spending time with your family and Dad through a service project. We will be gardening and beautifying the nature center. Lunch will be provided. Please go to our HandsOn website to learn more about this opportunity or to register:
https://volunteer.united-e-way.org/hng/volunteer/home/

Additionally, we are revamping our committee for FamilyServe this summer. We have three positions open. These positions focus on planning projects, coordinating resources for those projects and volunteer recruitment and PR. If you are interested in becoming involved or would like to submit suggestions for committee members, please email intern@communityconnection211.org.

Hope to see you all Saturday!

Hi, I will be your hostess for the summer.

Dawn mentioned her Masters of Social Work intern in her last entry. That would, in fact, be me. I will be your blog hostess. I have lots of adventures planned for us this summer, but more on that later.

My name is Anne Marie Catanzaro-King. I was born and raised by the mighty Mississippi river in Memphis, TN with strong family ties in Mississippi. I attended the University of Memphis and Auburn University, respectively, in my undergraduate career. Currently, I am a graduate student at the University of Georgia, a wife of a soldier, and the mother of a bouncing, red-headed three year-old boy named Conner.

This summer I am working extensively with HandsOn Northeast Georgia, the 211 call center, FamilyServe, and the Nonprofit Development Alliance. At this point, I hope you can tell that I enjoy having a lot on my plate :) . When I volunteered to manage the blog for the summer, I mentioned that I had a food blog of my very own (www.socialjusticeandfood.blogspot.com) and that I really enjoyed the blog experience. When it came time to actually follow through with the new responsibility of the HandsOn blog, I strived to achieve some harmony between the two blogs. I came up with the idea of "Coffee and Community", where over coffee and homemade treats I can sit down with the partner organizations from FamilyServe, SingleServe and TeamServe. These "coffee" sessions will be used to discuss what the organizations are up to now, what is going on in the community they serve and how those partnerships with HandsOn made a difference - with a side of Monkey bread! Sounds delectable, no?

I hope you join me and the HandsOn Northeast Georgia team for our "Coffee and Community" sessions.

See you soon!

There's a new gal in town

So after ten days on the job, I figured it was about time that I introduced myself. My name is Dawn Aiello and I am the new Program Director with Community Connection of Northeast Georgia, working with the 2-1-1 Helpline and HandsOn Northeast Georgia. More and more I'm realizing this job requires me to be a Jack-of-all-trades (or should I say Jill-of-all-trades) so whatever you need, I'm probably your gal!

I was born in New Jersey, moved to the Ft. Lauderdale area when I was in elementary school, and then worked on my undergraduate degree at the University of Central Florida. I decided to stay in Orlando for two years teaching high school math, before I realized that wasn't the right fit. So I headed to Athens for graduate school. I just graduated on May 8th (again! I think my parents are tired of sitting through graduation ceremonies ...) and happily started in this position on the 17th.

So why am I ecstatic to be in this position? Like many of you, I'm sure, I love helping people around me. In the past two years that I've lived in Athens, my volunteerism and involvement in the community has also helped me feel like Athens is my home. Transplanted from New Jersey and raised in Florida, I am not fully accustomed to southern living, but I'm learning. And loving every minute. I can't wait to facilitate bringing those same opportunities to all of you.

All this to say that I am looking forward to seeing your comments on our blog, chatting with you through Twitter or Facebook, or, dare I say it, even meeting you in person! If you're out and about in Athens, you can find me out dancing (swing, contra, ballroom), playing trivia, or eating at Yoguri (I've almost filled my punch card!).

As I take some time to adjust to the new position, one of our MSW interns will share with you some of her thoughts and wisdom. I hope you enjoy.

Happy summertime!