greetings from all of us in the Good Works community! We write once again with gratitude! We are sustained by your love, encouragement and support!!
# 3 Elliott Street (1981-1984) The Timothy House (1984 to present)
This month, I want to share a few things about the history of Good Works. Through an Ohio University internship in Mental Health, Good Works began in the fall of 1980 by organizing, in partnership with three local churches, volunteers to visit Seniors at their homes. In January 1981, soon after remodeling the basement of #3 Elliott Street in Athens, and with the support of my housemates and other students from our fellowship group, we opened up our home to welcome strangers. Darlene and I were married September 1981. We volunteered to provide shelter, care and community to adults and children experiencing homelessness while working other (paid) jobs during those years. We opened Good Works at 7:00 pm each night and people left around 9:00 am. This was about 4 years before we heard the term “homeless”. Take a look at these early statistics from our first few years. We started keeping statistics in 1982.
Good Works has been open now for over 16,000 (sixteen thousand) consecutive days and has provided more than 134,000 nights of shelter.
In 1984, Good Works established a board, filed for our non-profit status and moved the ministry to care for people experiencing homelessness to Central Avenue in December of that year. This house was named The Timothy House (TH) in 1999.
For 33 years, we provided emergency shelter. During those years, when someone called seeking a place to stay, we could welcome them within a few hours. In 2015, we announced to the community that we decided to stop providing emergency shelter due to the opiate crisis. Many people came to us using methamphetamine, heroine and oxycodone. This, along with our decision to stop receiving state funds based on their requirements to mandate data collection as a condition of providing shelter, moved us to stop providing emergency shelter. The State would never tell us who had access to the data they required us to collect on our residents or what they used that data for. That year, we began a two-step screening process of a phone interview followed by a face-to-face meeting. In retrospect, this was a wise decision.
The Timothy House continues to serve men, women and children and the house is much more safe, stable and predictable. Our goal to provide a safe, clean, stable and temporary place to live is being achieved.
*****
I am a caregiver working with residents at the Good Works Timothy House. One lady I had the privilege of walking beside during her stay with us came to us after having been incarcerated for a time. Integrating back into life as we all know it was a huge challenge to her. She had bad social anxiety, so just coming to dinner and other communal gatherings was hard for her. She had lots of goals to better herself and was putting forth the effort week by week to reach them amidst the setbacks and struggles she faced along the way. At times we just took the heaviness she brought into our caregiving meetings to prayer entrusting it in God’s hands. A short time after this we celebrated together the doors that opened offering her a place to live. Since her time with us, she has reached back out at times expressing to us the impact our community had on her. She also came back for one of our community events sharing her story with a group. I feel like her time in our community was empowering and transformative not just for her, but for those of us who were blessed to journey with her.
-Morgan Lanier (Morgan participated in a summer internship with Good Works and later joined the fulltime staff as a caregiver for several years. She also directed the Summer Kids Discovery Club. She returned to her family in Georgia in late 2024.)
*****
One meaningful relationship I've gotten to build during my time here has been with Stuart, a very sweet older man whose liver was failing during his stay due to heavy drinking during his younger years, which he regretted deeply. Because of his declining health, many employers wouldn't give him a chance, even though he was a very hard worker. Any time a donation came in while he was around, he would cheerfully offer to help put it away or organize it. He eventually got into a nursing home nearby and still calls us occasionally with updates. One thing I admired about Stuart was how much his faith buoyed him throughout his instability. Whether he was spending the night in a sleeping bag in the woods or at the Timothy House, he'd greet you with a smile and care way more about how you're doing than his own needs. He always credited God for the joy inside him. His most frequent comments were gratitude for us, his young son who lived elsewhere, and whatever struck his fancy that day. He spoke slowly but kindly. We had many stressful days trying to get Stuart the medical care he needed and being patient with him while he adjusted to our structure, but his kindness and internal light made it so, so worth it.
- Sydney Teagarden (Sydney joined the staff about a year after she completed her summer internship in Community Development with Covenant College. She serves as a caregiver on the TH team and plans to be married later this year to another GW staff person.)
Saturday Service, our initiative to fulfill our vision for Neighbors Helping Neighbors, began March 15. We are grateful to see individuals and groups come to serve seniors (mostly widows) in our community with labor intensive projects, and by helping us plant gardens at many homes.
We are all grateful to provide vehicle # 207 in March to another family through the Transformation Station. I like to describe things this way: People leave the old identity called “needy” and enter a new identity called volunteer and work alongside other volunteers. Each morning of service is 1 point, and each afternoon is 1 point. Everyone is invited to share a meal together each day. As they accumulate points, they can obtain a vehicle, appliance, bicycle or, with 1 point go shopping on our food pantry for what we refer to as ‘non-emergency’ food.
Friday Night Life will start year #33 this month. We continue to experience this aspect of Good Works as life-giving as so many people experience love and hope (and a hot nutritious dinner!)
We are still accepting applications for Summer Service Interns (June 8-August 9). Know someone who loves God and people and wants to join us for 9 weeks this summer?
We are still looking for a volunteer who would find JOY working with our archives and helping us to create an informative display of our history.
Loads of HOPE continues to provide a place for people in our community who don’t have access (or can’t afford) a laundromat to come and do their laundry. I am especially grateful to see so many people who are sleeping outside come to wash their clothing.
IN CLOSING…
I want to again say THANK YOU for your prayers and support. Indeed, we consider your gifts to Good Works as a trust. We also have many volunteers who bring their life-giving presence to those we serve. It really is amazing to watch every day! Please consider a visit sometime this Spring or Summer!
PS - If you would like to participate in the mission and ministry of Good Works through giving, you can send a gift to:
