Loving Hearts of Atlanta

Loving Hearts of Atlanta spreading love and support. The youngest of seven, Joann Eastman learned from her mother, that there was "always room for one more" rooted in her upbringing and strong faith in God. Joann's desire to serve those in need has never ceased. In 2017, Joann founded Loving Hearts of Atlanta and currently serves as President of the charitable nonprofit. The mission is to facilitate homeless women, children, and families of low- income status. To have tools in place to help with employment, education, and/or permanent housing while working with other programs. Helping to achieve stability in families so that Loving Hearts of Atlanta can help with decreasing the percentage of homelessness one family at a time. 

The funding for this project will help secure a facility to allow these services to take place. The problem that we are seeking to solve, is a problem that has grown due to poor education to secure decent employment. The average homeless family have parents that are between the ages of 16-35 typically high school dropouts, and/or single parent households, therefore, increasing the number of high school dropouts and/or homelessness even more. Loving Hearts of Atlanta believes that with the right funding they can provide families the ease of having a temporary place to stay, but also pinpoint the needs to help them remain self sufficient. For example, one of the families that Loving Hearts of Atlanta assisted had nowhere to go; she was 21 years old with 2 children, she had her first child when she was 16 years old, no high school diploma and did not know how to properly fill out an application.

 The staff worked with this family by helping the mother study for her GED. Showed her how to properly fill out an application and help provide a stable place for her and her family to live. Within 6 months, this young lady had a stable job, took the test for her GED, and intended on signing up for college. Although, she was just one person, that is one less person on the scale of homelessness. Loving Hearts of Atlanta organization know that they cannot stop the problem entirely alone, however they can help lower the numbers.

Loving Hearts of Atlanta has been establish since 2017. It started out as something they could do in the community. Joann had retired and used her funds to get this organization off the ground. What started small ended up becoming bigger than what she could ever image. She started to see the true needs of the community were deeper then just giving out food and furniture. Joann started to dig deeper and asked questions. She really involved herself in people's lives and found that, most were in situations because of lack. The lack of education, lack of training, and/or the lack of not knowing that with the right direction, their lives can be improved significantly if they focused and work hard for it.

Since Loving Hearts of Atlanta began, they have been nonstop with assisting those in need. Joann believes in Loving Hearts of Atlanta, not because of her, but because of the people. Every day she meets a new family, a new situation, or someone new in need. This makes her want to do more, makes her want to fight for Loving Hearts of Atlanta vision.  Loving Hearts of Atlanta has provide a variety of services to communities in need all across Atlanta. Loving Hearts'  services include food, clothing support, housing assistance, educational tools, and programs with employment opportunities. Recently partnered with WellStar, Friendship Community Baptist Church, Springfield Baptist Church, Eastpoint Housing and NACCP: Loving Hearts of Atlanta has helped families find affordable housing, food, and furniture.

Loving Hearts of Atlanta educational programs have provided over 2000 school supplies and 200 books in Back-to- School drives as well as, hosted and facilitated job training fairs. In 2018-2020, Loving Hearts of Atlanta was recognized by Fulton County Department of Family Children Services, Director Kristen Toliver, with a letter and Certificate of Appreciation. In May 2019-2020, the Department of Family Children Services also awarded Loving Hearts of Atlanta, with two Helping Hands Awards, for assisting in the back to school Community Health Fair. Loving Hearts of Atlanta has being recognized for it's commitment, contribution, and expertise in improving the lives of others.

As President of Loving Hearts of Atlanta, Joann Eastman has combined her compassion with her expertise in program development, grassroots community outreach, and volunteer training. Joann is certified through Volunteer Involvement Program of United Way of Greater Atlanta. She believes in the dignity of basic human rights and understands the power of collaboration to achieve. Their website Who We Are https://.lovingheartsatlanta.org and our social media page https://www.facebook.com/shannon7587/?ti=as has captured many families that we have assisted over the years.