People Above Process - Central Outreach & Advocacy Center

by Michael Gable

Michael graciously served as our interim Main Frame Coordinator while Ahren Cassinari-Foster was on parental leave. We are so grateful for all the different ways he’s served at the OAC and hope he’ll still remain connected to us even though his required internship is completed.

My introduction to Central Outreach and Advocacy Center was as a Clinical Pastoral Education student, a curriculum designed to help me experience and process the trauma of constantly working with people in crisis. So, in addition to “volunteering” 3 days a week, I also attended classes where we explored how the stories of the people who came into the OAC affected me. The one-word answer is: “profoundly.”

I spent time with people whom most consider as just a statistic: “Atlanta’s homeless population.” While there were a few who fed into the trope of what society tells us to expect of a person experiencing homelessness, the stories of most people defied simple stereotype. The stories I encountered were a kaleidoscope of experiences. While the people I helped had a variety of needs, most simply wanted to be officially recognized as a person by our government and by other people.

As my time wore on, I worked to understand not just the job in front of me, but also how the OAC functioned as a whole. I was introduced to how it seeks to partner with other organizations to connect people with services. I witnessed the work of engaging lawmakers to make structural changes to a system with plenty of opportunity for improvement. Finally, I landed in our Main Frame program, a curriculum designed to engage people over the course of weeks, rather than minutes, helping them to learn a few basic steps to breaking into the ever-changing job market.

When you spend time with people and really listen to their stories, it gradually gets harder to dismiss them. Throughout the Main Frame class, I found myself surrounded by good people who had gotten left out of the job market for a variety of reasons. Together, we covered skills such as career planning, resume building, job searching, and interviewing. We discussed budgeting, basic on-the-job skills, motivation, and work-life balance. We critiqued, held each other accountable, and celebrated as businesses began to respond to job applications.

Central Outreach and Advocacy Center began as just a placement, a spot where I would do my time and get my seminary credit. But with the help of Ahren, April, Brenna, and Kimberly, I began to recognize how much more it was–a place where we come to recognize the Image of God in one another as we work to put people above process.