About Dunwoody reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 20??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2020)
20 | Commentary r WESLEYAN Where authentic Christian mission and academic excellence aren't mutually exclusive WHY WESLEYAN?^ Scan to learn more! EXPLORE WESLEYAN AT WWW.WESLEYANSCHOOL.ORG/ADMISSIONS Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News ty/orfk ICnowCnj Carol Niemi is a marketing consultant who lives on the Dunwoodg-Sandg Springs line and writes about people whose lives inspire others. Contact her at worthknowingnow@gmail.com. CAC leader leaves a legacy of helping others After 23 years as CEO of the Community Assistance Center, Tamara Carrera has an nounced her intention to retire. Her legacy will be hard to equal. CAC was founded in San dy Springs in 1987 by 10 lo cal congregations to ad dress growing poverty in the community. For the next six years, it operated out of the scout hut at one of the mem ber churches. Then in 1993 along came Carrera, a bilin gual native of Ecuador new to Atlanta, with an MBA in nonprofit management and a desire to get involved. Her family joined Holy In nocents’ Episcopal Church, where on Mission Sunday she encountered CAC and signed up. “ft was basically all volunteers then,” she said. “Neighbors helping neighbors.” She soon went from volunteering once a week to joining the board of directors. By 1997, she was CAC’s fourth CEO. “I started part-time, for basically no money,” she said of the organization that provided food and clothing to 280 families a year with an annual budget of $24,000. She soon realized it wasn’t really a part- time job but believed in the mission and told the board she would work as many hours as necessary for the part-time salary. After the 1996 Olympics, many of the thousands of people who had come here to work were left jobless but stayed. The com munity was growing rapidly. So was the need. Carrera became a fundraiser. “That’s when we started strategic plan ning,” she said. Today CAC is the local community emergency assistance agency, every year serving more than 6,500 individuals in 3,000 households. It has an annual budget of over $5 million, 18 staff members, three locations and more than 500 regular vol unteers supported by 28 religious congre gations and numerous individual, corpo rate and foundation donors. CAC prevents homelessness and pro motes self-sufficiency by providing need ed food, clothing and emergency financial assistance. To qualify for assistance, people must live in one of six ZIP codes in Sandy Springs, Dunwoody and part of Doraville. Since its founding, it has helped more than 20,000 households cope with financial hardship. CAC operates out of three buildings: its headquarters at 1130 Hightower Trail, its food pantry and thrift store at 8607 Ro swell Road and a part-time food pantry at 5 Dunwoody Park South in Dunwoody. A second Sandy Springs location inside 285 is currently closed for renovation. In 2012, the Community Action Center became the Community Assistance Cen ter (still CAC) to facilitate fundraising and more accurately reflect its mission. ‘“Action Center’ was a term from the 1960s for social work organizations funded by public money, not 501(c)3’s like us,” she said. “When I went to foundations for mon ey, they said, ‘We don’t fund federal organizations.’” CAC has changed in the era of COVID-19. Its main build ing is temporarily closed, its thrift store and food pan- tries are open only on certain days, and interviews are con ducted by phone and email. The people served have changed, too. In the beginning, they were mainly families in extreme poverty with no savings. Now many are families that had savings but have used them up. “People we would have never seen be fore,” she said. This year, for Thanksgiving and Christ mas, instead of baskets of food, which re quire over 100 volunteers to pack, CAC is giving gift cards from grocery stores and stores that sell toys. Since becoming CEO, Carrera has seen a multitude of changes. “Early on, we were just trying to orga nize and define ourselves,” she said. “We knew the need was there and we were a Band-Aid, but we had no idea if we were having an impact because we didn’t have the resources to do follow-up.” In 2005, after moving to Hightower Trail, they began creating individual plans for each family and following up. “Now we follow families at 30, 90 and 180 days to see if we’re making a differ ence,” she said. “We know we’re essential. If we disappeared, it would be devastating to a lot of people.” CAC is all of this and more. It’s a place where people in need, who are often em barrassed to receive assistance, are treated with dignity and respect. Anyone who has ever been involved with CAC, as I was when I served on the board, knows that the astonishing success of the organization is the result of dedi cated teamwork but ultimately due to the commitment and leadership of one person - Tamara Carrera. Dedicated as always, she has promised to stay until the board finds her replace ment. “CAC has been my life for a long time,” she said. “It’s what I was meant to do.” For more about CAC, see ourcac.org. SPECIAL Tamara Carrera.
