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Community Assistance Center: Providing Hope and Stability in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody
We do a lot of different things. We have a lot of activities going on, but at the end of the day, we're in the business of hope. If somebody walks into our office and they walk back out with hope that tomorrow's going to be a little bit better than today, that's a win for that day.
In the suburbs north of Atlanta, one might not expect to find significant poverty and food insecurity. Yet in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, Georgia, approximately 20,000 residents live below the poverty line. For over 35 years, the Community Assistance Center (CAC) has been working to meet the needs of struggling families and individuals in these communities and providing hope.
The CAC was founded in 1987 by a coalition of congregations in the area. It has grown into a multifaceted nonprofit organization. Since then, the organization has provided provided emergency assistance to help stabilized families in crisis and promote self-sufficiency.
At the helm of CAC is Francis Horton, who brings decades of international disaster relief and community development experience to his role as CEO. “We are at our core a crisis response organization,” Horton explains. “People come into dire straits of some sort or another in life – loss of job, health issues, those kinds of things that tend to cripple a lot of families that don’t have a lot of margin. They can come to us for help.”
This help takes many forms. Firstly, the CAC provides financial assistance for rent and utilities to prevent evictions and utility shut-offs. Secondly, their three food pantries in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody fight food insecurity as their thrift shop provides access to quality clothing and household essentials. Moreover, CAC provides seasonal programs like tax preparation, back-to-school supplies and holiday gift sponsor matching to blunt the impact of financial hardship on everyday life. Additionally, they seek to stabilize families long-term by supporting career stability through their adult education classes, a career center, and job fairs.
Addressing Food Insecurity in the Community
According to the Atlanta Community Food Bank, one in eight people in Georgia are food insecure. However, food insecurity doesn’t always look like you might expect. Contrary to popular believe, it’s not just the visibly homeless or unemployed who are affected. Many food insecure individuals are working families, juggling multiple jobs but still unable to make ends meet. Others are seniors on fixed incomes, forced to choose between buying medication or groceries. Moreover, college students, sacrificing meals to pay for textbooks, are another often overlooked group facing this challenge.
Subsequently, in affluent areas like Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, the issue can be even more hidden. Specifically, the high cost of living in these communities means that even those with steady jobs may find themselves stretching their food budget to the breaking point. As a result, this “hidden hunger” in seemingly prosperous areas underscores the complexity of food insecurity. Consequently, it amplifies the need for community-based solutions like those offered by the Community Assistance Center. Therefore, organizations like CAC play a crucial role in addressing these less visible but equally critical instances of food insecurity.
Meeting Growing Needs
In recent years, CAC has seen demand for its services increase dramatically. Moreover, this demand has increased even as the demographics of those seeking help have shifted. “Last year, overall our programming was up 34% in number of clients,” Horton says. He further elaborates, “Two-thirds of the people coming to us for help have full-time jobs. Consequently, this is the working poor that we’re helping now, and that’s a little bit different than it was 4-5-6 years ago.”
Furthermore, the rising cost of housing in the area has put particular strain on low-income families. Horton notes, “At some point in the month, we have a lot of families in our area that have to make a decision of whether to pay rent or buy food.” He adds solemnly, “And that’s a tough decision to have to make.”
Food insecurity has spiked, with visits to CAC’s food pantries up 48% last year. In contrast, food donations only increased by 10%. “It’s really been a bit of a lean time in our food pantries and trying to keep the shelves stocked these days,” Horton says.
As a result of this increased need, CAC has had to purchase more food than ever before. However, Horton emphasizes that the issue extends far beyond Sandy Springs and Dunwoody: “About every two weeks or so, I read about a food pantry that closed somewhere because of supply issues. Importantly, it’s not as much that the supply is not there, it’s more the demand has increased so much that the supply can’t keep up.
A Holistic Approach to Assistance
While meeting the immediate needs of the community is crucial, the CAC takes a more comprehensive approach to helping clients achieve long-term stability. Specifically, their Career Center, launched two years ago, pairs clients with career advocates who provide coaching on everything from resume writing to interview skills to finding and maintaining a career path.
The impact of this personalized approach became evident at CAC’s first job fair. In this case, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) was the sole employer present. Remarkably, they found that about 90% of the 60 CAC clients who attended were employable. However, 80% of them would never have made it through CHOA’s standard recruitment process due to resume gaps or other issues. Nevertheless, the face-to-face interaction allowed candidates to explain their situations and showcase their potential. As a result, CHOA ended up hiring 20 of those job seekers.
Consequently, this success demonstrates the effectiveness of CAC’s personalized, hands-on approach to career development. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of creating opportunities for direct interaction between job seekers and potential employers, particularly for those who might be overlooked in traditional hiring processes.
Creating Valuable Parnterships
Since then, CAC has partnered with the cities of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody and their chambers of commerce to host larger career expos. Their most recent event drew 24 employers and 310 job seekers, with on-the-spot interviews and hiring.
CAC also offers adult education classes, including six levels of English language instruction and courses on computer skills and financial management. The classes serve a diverse population, with 13-14 different ethnic groups represented.
If you get people in the room talking to each other - not on their phones, not on chat, not on X, but talking face to face - then reality becomes reality. You can begin to understand where somebody stands, who they are, and what they are and why they are.
Maintaining Dignity and Respect
Throughout all of their programs and services, CAC places a strong emphasis on treating clients with dignity and respect. This culture of respect influences everything from the layout of their food pantries to the appearance of their thrift store.
The food pantries use a client choice model. This model allows people to shop as they would in a grocery store. “That helps to maintain the dignity and respect of our clients and they get to choose what they need,” Horton explains.
Similarly, the CAC recently rebranded their thrift store as Canopy Thrift. The new branding helps to convey that “it’s a place where everybody can come and feel safe and be welcomed.” Great care is taken in curating the merchandise. Only about 40% of donations make it to the sales floor. The rest is passed along to other nonprofits to ensure nothing goes to waste.
Francis recounts a recent Story
“About a month ago, A lady walked into our office and she was having a hard time. People don’t usually come to our office unless they’re having a hard time. So she came in and she needed a little bit of help with rent. And we were able to do that for her.
“We have two volunteers who man our reception desk in our building, one of them has been there for 15 years and is there every day. As this woman was leaving, she turned to our volunteers and said, ‘Thank you. I’ve been to several organizations looking for help. This is the first place I’ve been treated like a person.’
“Everything we do,” Francis stated, we try to make sure that we keep in mind that just because somebody is gong through a hard time, that doesn’t mean they’re not a person due respect and dignity. That’s why our pantry is client choice. That’s why if you walk into our thrift store it doesn’t feel or look like a lot of thrift stores. It looks like a boutique, because of that factor of trying to maintain that dignity and respect.”
Measuing Impact and Offering Hope
It is important that the CAC continues to gauge the effectiveness of their programs. They have a process to follow up with clients at 60, 90, and 180 days after receiving assistance. This practice helps them to understand how their programs are truly helping their clients. In the first half of this year (2024), they found that about 89% of people helped had been able to stabilize their housing situation. Additionally, about 80% had fully resolved the crisis that initially brought them to CAC.
“We do a lot of different things. We have a lot of activities going on, but at the end of the day, we’re in the business of hope,” Horton reflects. “If somebody walks into our office and they walk back out with hope that tomorrow’s gonna be a little bit better than today, that’s a win for that day.”
Challenges and Community Support
The CAC faces ongoing challenges in meeting the growing needs of the community. Therefore food supply remains a constant struggle, with pantry shelves often running thin. Financial resources are always in demand to fund their various programs and services. Like many nonprofits, CAC relies heavily on volunteers, with about 450 people donating their time each month.
The changing housing market has created hurdles as well. Furthermore many apartment complexes in the area have been purchased by investment companies. These changes have made it more difficult for CAC to negotiate with property managers on behalf of clients facing eviction.
To address these challenges, CAC depends on support from all sectors of the community. “It takes community to help community,” Horton emphasizes. “CAC can’t do it all alone. It takes the cities to partner with us. It takes the business community. It takes the private community. It takes the congregations who are partners as well. We all have to come together to lift those folks up who may be experiencing a little bit of a weaker time.”
There are many ways for community members to get involved, however. Volunteer opportunities are available in the food pantries, thrift store, and seasonal programs. Financial donations can be made through CAC’s websitem as well, (ourcac.org) to support their general fund or specific initiatives. Also, the organization hosts events throughout the year, including their upcoming “Under the Big Top” gala on October 26th at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center.
A Lifetime of Service
For Horton, leading CAC represents the culmination of a decades-long career in disaster response and community development around the globe. After practicing law for 10 years in Mississippi, he and his wife felt called to overseas service in 1995. They spent 20 years working in community development and disaster relief across 16-17 countries. They found themselves working on projects ranging from operating a fish farm in Pakistan to setting up Ebola treatment centers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This international experience gave Francis valuable perspective on human needs and resilience. “People are people,” he observes. “There were several moms that woke up in Atlanta this morning, and their primary concerns were getting the kids to school, getting a good education, whether or not they’re going to be safe going to and from school, and whether or not there’s going to be food on the table when they get home. There were several moms that woke up in Bangladesh this morning in bamboo huts – they had the same concerns.”
Making an Impact in the Community
Now at CAC, Francis is able to apply his expertise to meet needs in his own backyard. The CAC offers hope and expanded opportunities for thousands of families each year in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody. They equip their clients with tools for long-term stability – from career development to financial literacy. CAC doesn’t just offer a lifeline, it paves a path toward sustainable self-sufficiency. This holistic strategy transforms lives, turning moments of crisis into opportunities for growth and resilience in the community Francis now calls home
As the organization looks to the future, its mission remains clear: to be a source of support and empowerment for community members facing hardship. Through the combined efforts of staff, volunteers, and community partners, CAC will continue working to activate hope and create pathways out of poverty for years to come.
To learn more about Francis and the Community , you can connect with her on LinkedIn.
To watch some of Francis interview:
Community Assistance Center: Transforming Lives
About the Community Assistance Center
The Community Assistance Center (CAC)’s vision is to create a community whose basic needs are met, whose members are self-sufficient and have confidence to thrive.
Community Assistance Center provides basic needs assistance for neighbors to prevent homelessness and hunger while promoting self-sufficiency and empowering them to thrive.
We pursue this mission through a series of services to residents of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody:
- Financial Assistance
- Three Food Pantries - 2 in Sandy Springs, 1 in Dunwoody, Georgia
- Thrift Store
- Adult Education
- Career Center
- CAC Cares 4 Kids - backpacks, summer lunches, coats for winter, gifts at Christmas
- Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
To support the Community Assistance Center through financial or volunteer support visit:
The Community Assistance Center of Sandy Springs/Dunwoody Home
Francis K. Horton, III, Chief Executive Officer, Community Assistance Center
Francis K. Horton, III grew up in Mississippi and graduated from Mississippi State University with a B.S. in Computer Science. After graduating from Mississippi College School of Law in 1987, Francis served as Staff Attorney for the Department of Justice until 1994.
In 1995 he was appointed by the International Mission Board to an overseas post where he did a variety of mission, community development and disaster response work.
In 2007 Francis accepted a position as Area Director for Baptist Global Response, an international relief and development organization. He and his family have lived and served in Pakistan, Thailand, India, Singapore and Turkey. Francis has directed responses to several major disasters and worked in community development projects in more than 16 countries. Francis served as Baptist Global Response Area Director for Central and South Asia from 2007 until 2015. After 20 years of community development and disaster response overseas he moved by to the United States and in 2016 accepted a position with Samaritan’s Purse as Regional Director for West Africa. He stepped into his current position of Chief Executive Officer of Community Assistance Center in 2021 and moved to Sandy Springs.
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