City of Refuge Athens

Mission Statement

Our purpose is to serve families, children, and individuals in the Athens area who are living in crisis. We do this by: 1. Helping to mitigate food insecurity by providing groceries and supplies to families in need; 2. Providing food, uniforms, and supplies to partner schools; and 3. Offering an After School Tutoring and Mentor Program to Clarke County elementary students.  Through our service, we strive to show people in crisis that they are valued, loved, and have resources for transformational change.

Our Programs

We serve children in the Clarke County School District:

• We provide weekend food bags and family grocery boxes directly to the schools. 
• We are currently serving ten CCSD schools plus Downtown Academy and Statham Elementary. 
• We provide school supplies, uniforms (150 in August), backpacks (450 in August), coats, hygiene bags, socks, and underwear as needed. 

We serve families in crisis:

• distributing groceries, including canned and boxed goods, frozen meat, fresh produce, bread, milk, eggs, butter, flour, and pastries at six food insecure neighborhoods in Clarke, Oconee, and Barrow Counties each week. 
• At these distributions, we also supply paper towels, toilet paper, diapers, soap, and other household supplies. 
• We host a monthly drive-through food bank at our facility where we serve over 150 families.

In October 2022, we launched our new After School Tutoring and Mentor Program to grow our reach directly to the students in Clarke County. 

• We work with the principals, counselors, and family engagement specialists at our partner CCSD elementary schools to select children who are struggling and lagging behind. 
• We transport them to our facility, feed them a meal, assist with homework, provide additional literacy and math tutoring, facilitate reading practice, and have “club” time with a mentor.  Most after school programs in Athens do not provide transportation or focused academic tutoring. 
• We are working to get to know the families of these children so that we can begin to address the particular needs in each of their homes.