The Beltline Bike Shop is a non-profit organization located in southwest Atlanta that focuses on transforming the voices that influence Atlanta’s urban youth. We take in donated bikes and then invite kids to earn a bike of their own through community service, kids earn a bike and a relationship is formed. The shop, open three days week , is then available to them to keep their bike running and meet other neighbors within their community.
Located in the Adair Park neighborhood in SW Atlanta, we create a safe and fun environment for kids to empower themselves, expand their education and see the opportunities around them. We see how amazing the kids in our community are and want to help them reach their maximum potential. For us, this begins with helping them develop basic technical skills and taking responsibility for their bikes.
Starting with flat repair and working up, SW Atlanta kids ages 8 and up, learn not only how to fix and maintain their own modes of transportation, but how to conduct themselves in a busy bike shop setting. Community service, in the neighborhood and in the shop, is the “currency” of the shop, allowing kids to earn supplies, parts, and accessories for their bikes.
Since 2009, the Earn-a-Bike Program has helped hundreds of SW Atlanta kids and adults gain bicycle-mobility, practical skills, confidence and self- esteem.
Want to know if your good intentions hurt people, check out Toxic Charity .
Americans are at the forefront of giving, with 90 percent of American adults involved personally or financially in some form of charity. From school children to corporate CEOs, from small churches to massive government agencies, helping others is hallmark of the American character.And yet, writes veteran urban activist Robert D. Lupton, there is an unspoken scandal beneath the good intentions that is damaging the very individuals, cultures and causes we seek to lift up. “While we are very generous in charitable giving, much of that money is either wasted or actually harms the people it is targeted to help. But what is so surprising is that its outcomes are almost entirely unexamined.” Far more often than we’d like to imagine, the result of the food we ship to Haiti, the well we dig in Sudan, the clothes we distribute in inner-city Detroit is dependency, the destruction of personal initiative, and enduring disempowerment. His new book Toxic Charity makes you ponder hard questions: Is short term service the worst thing to do for people in need? Are handouts the greatest deterrent to ending poverty? Are your good intentions negatively influencing the story of justice? To order your copy simply follow the link provided. wwwfcsministries.org
