How It Started

In 2012, Christy Betz, a volunteer with Remerge, had a simple but profound idea:

“What if I rallied my friends and friends-of-friends to respond directly to the needs of friends in the Remerge community.”

Rather than fundraising for a broad social challenge, such as ending homelessness, Christy started to ask her friends to help a particular friend of hers with an immediate, solvable need. One by one, needs of the Remerge community were being met, while another community was becoming more familiar with the stories and challenges facing those in less resourced environments than theirs. From this spark, Giving Grace was born, and to this day personal connection and personal response remains the center-piece of Giving Grace.

How We Serve Our Neighbors

The Giving Grace network serves vulnerable persons that have acute needs which threaten them with displacement and the loss of meaningful connections.

Our goal is to ensure they can maintain a healthy, secure presence in the community to give them the best chance of success moving forward. Our efforts are geared toward single-parent families, persons experiencing homelessness, and the extremely poor.

We provide direct support with:

  • rent, mortgage and utilities
  • transportation
  • clothing
  • childcare

Our relational approach is simple:

  • Financial or in-kind assistance for community members facing acute emergency needs.
  • A support and sustainability plan is created with the community-member to help move them beyond the need.
  • Network members and/or staff walk alongside the community-member to offer ongoing support and encouragement.

Giving Grace-Clarkston

Giving Grace-Clarkston focuses on providing support to people effected by the housing crisis in Clarkston, Ga. Clarkston contains over 44 apartment complexes with thousands of renters who are one crisis away from homelessness. We primarily serve vulnerable residents such as single parents, children, the under-employed, sick and disabled who are most often impacted by the housing crisis.

How it works:

  • We get referrals of families at risk from community members, landlords and by word of mouth
  • After getting to know the client, we determine if we can help them. Once approved for assistance, we raise funds through Giving Grace, through Remerge and pay for that client’s rent or other bills effecting their housing stability.  
  • We maintain the same relational approach by working 1:1 to create a stability plan focusing on employment, supportive relationships, and securing additional resources or benefit

Our 2024 Impact

Our team and network members continue to exceed expectations in practically loving our most vulnerable neighbors.

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Total Direct Services

Number of Families Served