A Long-Term Investment, A Lifetime of Rewards
A Long-Term Investment, A Lifetime of Rewards
One connection sparked over 15 years of life change.
It was Christmas in 2008. Jim Hollandsworth was pastoring a church in Loganville, and his wife was a teacher. Their church’s small group decided to deliver Christmas gifts to a family in partnership with the Southeast Gwinnett Co-Op.
Once they’d gathered the gifts, Jim and Melinda drove them to a mobile home park in Loganville.
“It was a large mobile home community. We didn’t even know it existed, and it was so close to our house,” Jim recalls.
Jim and Melinda met a family of immigrants from Mexico, two parents and seven children living together in a trailer. After their first visit, the Hollandsworths knew they wanted to come back.
“We did a few weeks later and started to get to know the family. Then one afternoon, we dropped by, and the mom asked if we could help her kids with homework,” he said. “We helped that afternoon, and then she asked, ‘Can you come back next week?’”
So Jim and Melinda did.
“Each week, there were more kids coming, and soon we had a little homework club,” he said.
When a trailer in the mobile home park became available, the property manager asked Jim if he wanted to use it for the homework club.
“We renovated it with friends from church and turned it into a little community center. We started doing homework two afternoons a week there for a year, and we just started seeing great relationships form,” Jim explained.
“We got to know teenagers in the neighborhood and found out that most of them had dropped out of school. We tried to figure out why and started getting to know their parents. We were just building a lot of momentum.”
In 2011, they began raising money for consistent after-school and preschool programming. That year, Path United became an official nonprofit.
From there, the outreach has spread from one mobile home park in Loganville to more in Georgia and even in Tennessee.
Most of the families Path United serves in these parks are immigrant families facing difficult language, income and school system barriers.
“A lot of the kids are translating for their parents at school,” he explained. “The parents of our students work a lot of hours, so they’re not home as much to help their kids with homework. And with the language barrier, it’s hard to help their kids navigate the homework.
“And as first-generation immigrants, the parents have no experience navigating our complex school system here in the U.S., so sometimes they just feel overwhelmed.”
At the core of Path United’s outreach is a partnership with families so kids can build a strong foundation for future career and life success.
“We teach core life skills like communication, kindness, goal setting and teamwork. We take kids on career exposure trips, college visits and summer camps,” Jim shared. “We want our students to find meaningful careers after graduation from high school — whether they go to college or not.”
Each month, team members also meet with students’ parents to help them navigate their child’s educational journey from kindergarten through 12th grade.
For kids like Diana, Path United’s programming has been transformational.
Jim and his team met Diana when she was just a toddler, and she’s grown up in Path United’s programs. Now she’s an elementary after-school program leader with the organization, showing kids just like her that achieving their dreams is possible.
“My wife and I, and some of our staff, didn’t grow up in similar situations to the kids, but students like Diana did. The kids relate to them,” he said.
For other children, their future careers aren’t the only things that have been transformed. At Path United, team members are also teaching children about a God who loves them and surrounding these students with prayer.
“We met one of our very first students, Omar, when he was in sixth grade. He’s 28 now, and he graduated high school ten years ago in our first graduating class,” Jim explained. “We’ve been praying for him for 16 years that he would come to know God and make a decision to follow Jesus.”
In early March, Jim baptized Omar.
“He came to me and said, ‘I’m ready to start living my life in a different way. I want to follow Jesus. I want to model that for my kids.’”
At Path United, their goal isn’t a quick fix. They patiently pray and serve, waiting for God to do the work in the lives of parents and their children.
“We think that the most important thing we do is long-term relationship investments,” Jim said, “and we love walking with kids and their families for years and years.”
Support their mission at: https://cfneg.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1392
A Long-Term Investment, A Lifetime of Rewards
A Long-Term Investment, A Lifetime of Rewards
One connection sparked over 15 years of life change.
It was Christmas in 2008. Jim Hollandsworth was pastoring a church in Loganville, and his wife was a teacher. Their church’s small group decided to deliver Christmas gifts to a family in partnership with the Southeast Gwinnett Co-Op.
Once they’d gathered the gifts, Jim and Melinda drove them to a mobile home park in Loganville.
“It was a large mobile home community. We didn’t even know it existed, and it was so close to our house,” Jim recalls.
Jim and Melinda met a family of immigrants from Mexico, two parents and seven children living together in a trailer. After their first visit, the Hollandsworths knew they wanted to come back.
“We did a few weeks later and started to get to know the family. Then one afternoon, we dropped by, and the mom asked if we could help her kids with homework,” he said. “We helped that afternoon, and then she asked, ‘Can you come back next week?’”
So Jim and Melinda did.
“Each week, there were more kids coming, and soon we had a little homework club,” he said.
When a trailer in the mobile home park became available, the property manager asked Jim if he wanted to use it for the homework club.
“We renovated it with friends from church and turned it into a little community center. We started doing homework two afternoons a week there for a year, and we just started seeing great relationships form,” Jim explained.
“We got to know teenagers in the neighborhood and found out that most of them had dropped out of school. We tried to figure out why and started getting to know their parents. We were just building a lot of momentum.”
In 2011, they began raising money for consistent after-school and preschool programming. That year, Path United became an official nonprofit.
From there, the outreach has spread from one mobile home park in Loganville to more in Georgia and even in Tennessee.
Most of the families Path United serves in these parks are immigrant families facing difficult language, income and school system barriers.
“A lot of the kids are translating for their parents at school,” he explained. “The parents of our students work a lot of hours, so they’re not home as much to help their kids with homework. And with the language barrier, it’s hard to help their kids navigate the homework.
“And as first-generation immigrants, the parents have no experience navigating our complex school system here in the U.S., so sometimes they just feel overwhelmed.”
At the core of Path United’s outreach is a partnership with families so kids can build a strong foundation for future career and life success.
“We teach core life skills like communication, kindness, goal setting and teamwork. We take kids on career exposure trips, college visits and summer camps,” Jim shared. “We want our students to find meaningful careers after graduation from high school — whether they go to college or not.”
Each month, team members also meet with students’ parents to help them navigate their child’s educational journey from kindergarten through 12th grade.
For kids like Diana, Path United’s programming has been transformational.
Jim and his team met Diana when she was just a toddler, and she’s grown up in Path United’s programs. Now she’s an elementary after-school program leader with the organization, showing kids just like her that achieving their dreams is possible.
“My wife and I, and some of our staff, didn’t grow up in similar situations to the kids, but students like Diana did. The kids relate to them,” he said.
For other children, their future careers aren’t the only things that have been transformed. At Path United, team members are also teaching children about a God who loves them and surrounding these students with prayer.
“We met one of our very first students, Omar, when he was in sixth grade. He’s 28 now, and he graduated high school ten years ago in our first graduating class,” Jim explained. “We’ve been praying for him for 16 years that he would come to know God and make a decision to follow Jesus.”
In early March, Jim baptized Omar.
“He came to me and said, ‘I’m ready to start living my life in a different way. I want to follow Jesus. I want to model that for my kids.’”
At Path United, their goal isn’t a quick fix. They patiently pray and serve, waiting for God to do the work in the lives of parents and their children.
“We think that the most important thing we do is long-term relationship investments,” Jim said, “and we love walking with kids and their families for years and years.”
Support their mission at: https://cfneg.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1392
