Our Mission Copy

Heather Carlson (our first Social Work staff member) and her spouse Matt Carlson with a group of youth donating food items.

Today, The Caring Place has support from 52 churches, representing 12 denominations, 134 active volunteers, 11 staff members, and over 150 organizations and businesses. Currently, God has placed Corinne Freeman as the Executive Director. Corinne began with The Caring Place in 2014. Her love and compassion has continued to grow and commitment to move forward is contagious. It is amazing to see all that God has done through the ministry of love at The Caring Place since we began in 2000, when four of the larger Churches of God in Bradley County decided to merge their benevolent ministries into one entity and formed Lift and Redemption Ministries. Lift and Redemption Ministries began doing business as The Caring Place in 2005. With this transition to The Caring Place in 2005, the Board hired Reba A. Terry, LCSW as Executive Director. The organization began to grow as additional churches expressed interest in combining their benevolent efforts with that of The Caring Place. By 2008, The Caring Place had 40 partner churches from 12 different denominations, and over 100 active volunteers.

Reba’s leadership expanded services to clothing and social work. In addition, she served as an advocate to continually share the needs of our community with others so that programs and opportunities, such as our Sac Pac program, could become realities. In January 2016, Dr. Randy Howard became the Executive Director. Through his leadership, a focus on spiritual support for our clients saw our devotions open to those we serve as well as a dedicated prayer station.

Today, Corinne Freeman has continued to build upon the firm foundation of faith in the love of Christ and collaboration with our sisters and brothers to see an end to poverty through opportunities and resources. She recognizes that it is by everyone being present at the table, in recognizing the value each person brings, that we are able to move forward as a community from surviving to thriving.