Julia’s Story

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You can read Julia’s story below.

Tell Us About Yourself, Julia

Hi! My name is Julia Gaddis-Brown​ and I’ve been an manager in office equipment for a very long time and very successful. My claim to fame is that I was a very young 31 year old regional president of a company and was very successful.

What Is Your Experience With North Fulton Charities?

I found myself, after going through a divorce and becoming a single mom, having to have my 6 year old daughter being put on the bus by her 11 and 12 year old siblings because I had to be on the other side of Atlanta by 7:30. And as a single mom that was extremely difficult on me as parent. Any time you have to leave your child it’s heart wrenching, and it makes it very difficult to do any job. I found that it wasn’t going to work for me, I just couldn’t do it any longer. I found myself out of work thinking I would get something sooner than I did, and found myself really needing help. I had depleted all of my savings, but being a very proud individual, as I’ve always been independent all my life, I needed somewhere to get assistance. I called and made an appointment and the ladies were wonderful. They told me that based on having 3 kids that I could get groceries. And I was blown away! And I was like, “I can get what?!” And they said, “Yea, you can get food!”. So I signed up for the program but I didn’t want to come every day, or every week because I still felt like this was for someone else, it wasn’t necessarily for me because I did live up in Alpharetta in a very nice house and drove a nice car and so I just never looked at it as a place that I should belong. But they welcomed me in. Everybody was wonderful! I came and I got enough food every week to feed my family. It helped to offset the cash that I did have. My kids were so excited when I would come home with the food.

What Other NFCC Programs Do You Have Experience With?

When I started to get back on my feet I continued to have difficulty with paying bills, paying my mortgage. I was keeping the lights on as best I could. I came to North Fulton Charities and I just asked the lady at the desk, I said I’m having some trouble making my mortgage payment, and she said we have a program for that. You have to do an interview and I did, I interviewed. They said they don’t guarantee what we can do, but the next thing I knew, she wrote out a $500 check to quicken. I can’t tell you how tremendous that was in my life at the time because I didn’t know where I was going to turn. I didn’t want me and my kids to be out on the streets.

Tell Us About Your Experience With The Holiday Programs

The other service that I was received was leading up to Christmas that year. Once again low on money and with 3 kids, and you don’t want your kids to have nothing at Christmas. And if they would have gotten nothing it would have been ok with them, but as a parent you want to provide something. A few ladies there were volunteering, I’ll never forget, they were so sweet. They took me from station to station, and for each child I got to pick out 2 gifts. It was such a hard time in my life when I just didn’t know where I was going to turn, and I didn’t know where the gifts were going to come from, and I end up with a bicycle, and I end up with a gift cards, and pajama sets, enough gifts for 3 kids. If you’ve never asked for anything in your life and then to have an organization that just helps people. That place was packed that day. I just looked around and thought, Oh my God, these people are so giving of themselves and they’re volunteering and somebody donated this stuff. I felt, why wasn’t I donating? Why wasn’t I in there years before I got into this situation and helping out? It was so overwhelming for me. And the minute, it didn’t take me long to get back on my feet, but I started giving to North Fulton Charities, and I tell my friends to give as well. I also do a monthly gift that’s a draft, that comes off the top. It’s such a wonderful program that you have here. I tell people all the time. If you’re in need, just sometimes, say something. Say something to somebody. Don’t feel like you have to go it alone because there are organizations, and North Fulton Charities is one of them, that just freely helps.

Did You Know:

1,400 adults took education classes at the NFCC Education Center on the path to self-sufficiency last year.