About Us

Our Mission

Lift Up Atlanta’s mission is to provide the homeless and low income families in the metro Atlanta area with safe housing, food, clothing and other services designed to help them meet their basic needs, to support their education, and to empower them to reach self sufficiency.

Founded in September 2011 by Rosalind Garner, Lift Up Atlanta is designed to meet the basic needs of the homeless and low income families including food, clothing, hygiene needs, educational services etc. It seeks to fill the gaps in the current provision of services to the homeless and low income families in the metro Atlanta area and to empower them to become self-sufficient again.

Lift Up Atlanta will provide several services to local homeless shelters, other nonprofit organizations, low income families and to the homeless directly. The programs will include:

Backpack Program – Every summer, Lift Up Atlanta will provide backpacks filled with school supplies for children in local homeless shelters and disadvantaged youth.
Educational Training — Lift Up Atlanta provides FREE career workshops and computer training classes in various locations in the metro Atlanta area to those in need
Life Skills/ Empowerment Program – Volunteers will be recruited to provide life skills classes that provide information about credit, budgeting, resumes, interviews, education etc. This program is designed to give the customers skills to get jobs and basic life skills.
Food Drives – Lift Up Atlanta will continuously build a food pantry to provide food to the local homeless shelters and food banks. This will help to provide food baskets at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Annual Christmas toy drive – Lift Up Atlanta with the help of volunteers will provide new toys to children in need.

Meet Our Program Directors

Job Readiness Program Co-Director – Mark Cruz

Mark is a 12-year airline management professional, currently employed at Delta Air

Lines in Revenue Management. Previously, he worked at US Airways, also in Revenue

Management. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Business Administration from

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Mark is passionate about giving back to the community in the same manner that the

community served him when he was in the employment application process after

graduating college. Mark has participated and continues to participate in various

community service projects such as Habitat for Humanity, Medshare, and “KaBoom!”.

Mark is originally from Tampa, Florida.

Job Readiness Program Co-Director – Holly Yan

Holly Yan is a journalist for CNN Digital, covering both national and international news. Prior to CNN, she was a TV reporter in Dallas. Holly is committed to helping end the suffering faced by the homeless and needy in our community. She joined Lift Up Atlanta in 2013, distributing food and clothing to the homeless, and is now a director of the Job Readiness Program. Through the Job Readiness Program, she has helped clients from a wide array of difficult circumstances carve a path to greater self-sufficiency.

Tawanna-Kelley Computer Training Program Director – Tawanna Kelley
Tawanna is originally from Baltimore and settled in Atlanta in February of 2011 and began working with Lift Up Atlanta very shortly after her arrival because of her need to give back to her community. She has worked in the corporate training world for more than 17 years with a variety of companies and industries. She’s trained a wide variety of computer software to a very diverse group of learners throughout her career and wanted to use her computer knowledge to help others.

About Us

Meet Our Program Directors

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