Atlanta Dream Center Master's Commission

Adopt-A-Block program is an outreach that literally walks into the homes and into the lives of the families who live in Atlanta. Adopt-A-Block is transforming families one block at a time by serving the inner city neighborhood. Consistently, every Saturday, rain or shine, block pastors an volunteers go to designated blocks, knocking on doors asking if any assistance is needed. Each group brings food and encouragement to individuals and their families. Assistance is offered in practical ways such as tutoring, childcare, home repairs, house cleaning, and a taxi/van service to Dr’s appointments.
The vision for Adopt-A-Block is to make the Atlanta Dream Center visible by establishing strong relationships, cleaning up neighborhoods, befriending the elderly, the single parent, and the youth while leading them by example into a better way of living. Residents and their children are invited to spend quality time with Adopt-A-Block members during the week; this provides an opportunity for positive influence. Adopt-A-Block enhances the community by consistently picking up trash every Saturday. Our goal is to makes the environment cleaner. We believe that a cleaner environment creates a nicer place to live and motivates one to keep their homes nicer both inside and outside. Adopt-A-Blocks philosophy is that a clean home enhances the overall morale, attitude, and mindset of the residents.
	Adopt-A-Block’s presence develops trust. Once trust is established, individuals begin to share from their heart. They share their needs, their concerns, their hopes, and their dreams. Most often we discover that individuals desire a change, but cannot see a way out. The Atlanta Dream Center offers them a way out by offering encouragement and confirming our belief that dreams can come true. We share our individual stories as testimonies of how we overcame. As a result we have already seen dramatic change Atlanta’s Fourth Ward. Previously the neighborhood surrounding the Dream Center maintained fourteen
full-time drug dealers, heavy prostitution, and gang violence. The Dream Center’s presence by Adopt-A-Block has resulted in zero drug dealers, zero prostitution, and gang violence has been eliminated. People have begun to respect themselves, their neighbors, and their neighborhood. A sense of pride has been returned. Adopt-A-Block continues growing looks forward to making an even greater difference in the city of Atlanta. In 2007 Adopt-A--Block delivered and distributed an average of sixty two thousand and four hundred (62,400) pounds of food throughout the community. In addition, The Atlanta Dream Center donated a warehouse of furniture, and thousands of household items and hygiene products. Adopt-A-Block reaches more than two thousand people (seventy percent (70%) being children) every Saturday. Also, Adopt-A-Block’s members provide the following services: House cleaning, carpet cleaning, trash removal, physical labor as requested to relocate a tenant or rearrange furniture, brush removal, and landscaping. In 2008 Adopt-A-Block’s food distribution is projected to double and exceed over one hundred thousand (100,000) pounds as we serve our community in an attempt to meet the needs of single mothers, children, the elderly, the handicapped, and the homeless as they are discovered in abandoned buildings.