2019 Epiphany Award Recipients

 ENTREPRENEUR: LARRY WITHERSPOON

Automotive Training Center is a program in Atlanta, Georgia that provides young men with technical training so that they may obtain entry-level employment in the automotive repair industry. The majority of our students are at-risk, from low-income neighborhoods where unemployment and high school drop out rates are both high. ATC was founded on the principle that all of its students have untapped potential that has not developed because of their specific life circumstances. ATC gives its students opportunities to grow the technical and entrepreneurial skills they already possess. We instill these values through a positive, encouraging, and challenging learning environment. ATC’s training produces graduates that are more likely to maintain stable employment, become business owners, and have stable family lives when compared to their peers.

Automotive Training Center website ⧉

ENTREPRENEUR: ANDREW THOMPSON

Over one in five Fulton County renters are served with an eviction notice every year, many of which can be avoided with access to basic information about Fulton County housing court. The Eviction Assistance Mobile Application (“Eviction Assistance MAP”) is a mobile phone app for renters that will help reduce evictions by delivering easy-to-understand information about housing court, reminders for court dates, and tips on how to successfully mediate a case to every tenant facing eviction precisely when they need it– all while saving courts significant time and money.

ENTREPRENEUR: FRANK FURMAN

PadSplit’s mission is to solve the affordable housing crisis, here in Atlanta and beyond. PadSplit residents are employed, but earn only $20-25k/year on average and simply cannot afford housing costs in Atlanta. Forty percent of their residents have experienced homelessness in the past year, despite employment. PadSplit takes one unaffordable home and creates a shared living environment that makes it more affordable for more people. This model creates holistic affordability by bundling the (shared) costs of furnished rooms, utilities, wifi, and laundry, while also moving people closer to work. PadSplit works with homeowners to transform rental properties into safe, energy-efficient, and respectable co-living housing in the Atlanta metro area. After only one year, PadSplit has created housing for about 100 singles, couples, and single parents with children, with 2,000 people on their waitlist. Just as Airbnb made hosting normal for people, or Uber normalized hitching a ride with a stranger by making it convenient and accountable, PadSplit is building a technology platform to do the same for homeowners and residents.

PadSplit website ⧉ | Wall Street Journal article ⧉

ENTREPRENEURS: TODD HOLCOMBE, JASON TUCKER, AND HILARY BAKER/MEALS-ON-WHEELS-ATLANTA

Purposeful Pecans is a new initiative to support the mission of Meals-On-Wheels-Atlanta (“MOWA”). MOWA serves over 300,000 meals yearly to seniors in need, and its near-term goal is to grow to serve over 500,000 meals per year. Financing this growth will require expansion of the donor base and pool of volunteers, and some outside-the-box thinking, like Purposeful Pecans. Purposeful Pecans are cooked in MOWA’s kitchen after the day’s meals are prepared, using gourmet recipes (“Sweet & Hot” and “Cinnamon Star Anise”) developed by the former executive chef at The Four Seasons Hotel. These delicious treats are sold directly in pop-up markets, on the internet, and through a distribution network in Atlanta’s hospitality industry. The profits from Purposeful Pecans will help fund MOWA’s mission to feed low-income and homebound seniors. Purposeful Pecans is in its start-up phase, and Epiphany funding would help finance investments in equipment, facilities, and marketing needed for growth.

Purposeful Pecans website ⧉

Refuge Coffee Co. is a nonprofit enterprise that provides living wage jobs, job training, and mentorship to resettled refugees through the business of coffee and hospitality. But our real mission is welcome. Our refugee trainees help to drive that mission, welcoming the world at our coffee shop in Clarkston and from our red coffee trucks all over Atlanta. We do this business of welcome with refugees, not for them. Our trainees interact daily with people from many cultures, and because we employ locally and work hard to bring worlds together equally, our little establishment has become a town center that stands for hope. “With” is subtle but powerful. It chips away at biases and can transform an entire community’s mindset. Now beginning our 3rd year of operation, we have multiple opportunities to grow, both as a coffee shop and a catering operation, including new catering trucks, new locations, and a kitchen addition to our current location, all of which will create more jobs and training opportunities.

Refuge Coffee Co. website ⧉