They say it takes a village to raise a child; I say it takes the whole community to thrive asa community. Over the past several months Good Neighbors has witnessed the impact a caringcommunity can create. This story of hope is a little different than we normally tell. Today Iwould like to tell you the story of the amazing collaborations happening between the differentnon-profits in Blount County.Recently, we had several neighbors call us for…

This is the story of Mark. He is a veteran living in our community with deep roots goingback three generations in Blount County. After he left the service Mark worked on privatecontacts where he put to use the skills he gained from the military to good use in engineering.During this time, he raised his family with his wife and had a good life.Over 6 years ago he lost his wife to cancer. His children…

Karen and her 12-year-old son, Jason, have been living with family for the past year.After an unfortunate divorce, having to relocate, and having to find a job due to loss of incomefrom the separation, Karen has been trying to gain stability. Jason is a whirlwind of energy andis involved in multiple school activities. Karen works full-time as a receptionist in a medicaloffice. Over the past several months, she has been able to save some…

We all have read and heard the stories of how rent has been going up and up again over the past few years. This has affected several families we serve here at Good Neighbors as more and more have turned to us for rent assistance. This is how we met Ginny when she was facing a difficult period in her life due to multiple increases in her rent over the past 3 years. While…

Breann and Tony are just starting their life together and expecting a baby in 2 months.They have lived in Blount County their entire lives and wanted to stay close to family as theyraised their child. They were renting in a trailer community that was sold recently and the newmanagement raised the rent over what they could afford. They had the option of either payingthe higher rent by adding $250.00 to their bill or finding…

This is the story of Gwen, a veteran who served in the U.S. Army for over 20 years. Sinceher retirement, Gwen has had several health problems and has found herself being displacedmore than once having to move from one place to another even having to flee from an abusiverelationship. During one of the moves about a year ago, we crossed paths and GNBC was ableto provide Gwen with some valuable community resources and a…

On days when you just want to get things done and everything seems to go wrong it ishard to make choices that will affect your future. This is the story of Janet who recently gainedcustody of her two young granddaughters. Janet is a senior who had raised her children sometime ago and was living alone. She had a good-paying job that covered all her needs and bills.Four months ago, she took in her two…

We love to hear from our neighbors anytime, but more so from those that we havehelped and that they are back on track. That is the story of Ellie and her adult son Marc. Elliecame to Good Neighbors several months ago for assistance with rent. She was living with herson and a roommate at the time. Rent was split 3 ways and they paid their rent to theroommate who would turn it into the…

Planning and Getting Ahead Good Neighbors’ mission is to help all our neighbors who call us for assistance. Westrive to meet our neighbors where they are on their journey to stability, and every so often wecome across someone who is so very close to solving the problem that prompted a call to GNBCin the first place. Such is the story of Madison. Madison is a young woman living in ourcommunity who has overcome tremendous…