Compassion Coalition’s newest Circle of Support (COS) is comprised of 8 volunteers from Fountain City Presbyterian Church (www.fountaincitypres.org/).  They completed their training and began serving as mentors in early August for two of our previously homeless neighbors.  Over the next 12 months, they will regularly visit with a married couple who were both homeless for more than a year before recently moving into their new apartment.  With the help of their case manager and their COS Team, we hope and pray that these newlyweds (who are newly housed!) will experience tremendous success.

Compassion Coalition’s newest Circle of Support is comprised of 5 volunteers from Crossings (www.crossingsknoxville.com).  They just completed their training to begin serving as mentors to one of our previously homeless neighbors.

Compassion Coalition’s Circles of Support is a faith-based mentor program that connects small teams of volunteers with an individual as they transition out of homelessness and back into the community.  Each team averages 5 people, and it costs us an average of $25 per mentor per year.  Could you sponsor a mentor (or a team of 5) and help us offset the cost?

Here is the $25 breakdown:

$9 – Background Check

$5 – Badge

$5 –Continuing Education Production/ Distribution

$6 – Training Manual Production

To sponsor a team, please contact Jim Thompson at jim@compassioncoalition.org or 865.251.1591 x 4

Have you started your spring cleaning?

Choose to make a deliberate donation to serve the less fortunate!

The Furniture Ministry at Compassion Coalition provides furniture – no junk for Jesus! – to eligible, needy individuals. Items most requested are dressers, chest of drawers, bed frames, clean mattress sets, night stands, lamps, chest-of-drawers, appliances, washers, dryers, kitchen tables and chairs, and living room sofas, chairs, and recliners. To make donations, please contact by phone or email, to the Furniture Ministry Coordinator, Charlotte Mack at 865-251-1591 (x3) or charlotte@compassioncoalition.org

The Clearinghouse is a telephone helpline that receives requests for assistance from churches, pastors, organizations, individuals and families in need. The need is reviewed and analyzed by volunteers and the caller is referred to the appropriate organization, agency or church in our community.  This is a fulfilling and rewarding opportunity to work with individuals who need assistance in our community.  You will be trained, supported, encouraged and blessed by being the first person to respond these callers.  We have an upcoming training for volunteers, so now is a great time to see if this is where God wants you to serve.  For more information contact Gina Whitmore at 251-1591 ext. 2 or gina@compassioncoalition.org.

Compassion Coalition’s most recent Circle of Support consists of 6 young adults from St John’s Lutheran Church who completed the mentor training and began serving as mentors for one of our previously homeless neighbors in mid-January.  During the next 12 months, they will regularly visit with a woman who was on-and-off homeless for a number years and who, with the help of her case manager, is transitioning into the permanence of her new home.