Out on Atlanta’s Westside, a place has been quietly rewriting people’s worst chapters into their best ones for almost 30 years.
City of Refuge doesn’t do “one problem, one program.” Walk onto their 8-acre campus off Joseph E. Boone Boulevard, and you’ll find housing, job training, healthcare, and youth programs all under one roof — because when someone’s life is falling apart, it’s rarely just one thing going wrong.
Lose your job, and suddenly you’re behind on rent. Lose your housing, and suddenly the kids’ school situation is a mess too. City of Refuge figured out a long time ago that helping people means meeting all of it at once, not handing them a pamphlet and a phone number.
This month, Atlanta News First is putting its spotlight — and its wallet — behind them. It’s part of the station’s “Three Degree Guarantee”: every time the First Alert Weather Team nails the forecast within three degrees, City of Refuge gets a donation, matched dollar-for-dollar by Coolray Heating & Air.
It’s a small, clever bit of civic math. Get the weather right, help a neighbor out. And City of Refuge has more than earned the assist — this is an organization built on second chances, run by people who believe “in crisis” is a chapter, not a life sentence.
