Epiphany Alumni
Epiphany is a social entrepreneurship initiative of the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. Encouraging and accelerating ventures with innovative ideas to address social challenges.
Learn more about our alumni and please patronize them at your next opportunity!
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.
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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.
FOTS Mobile Shower Service includes a two-stall shower trailer with hygiene kits and towels. It is a welcome place for unhoused individuals to shower and emerge clean and refreshed. With the ability to shift locations around metro-Atlanta, the ministry is capable of providing as many as 100 showers per week.
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The ministry was founded by Maurice Lattimore, who spent years on the street before he found a helping hand from North Avenue Presbyterian Church (NAPC). His experiences have taught him a great deal about the pathway from homelessness to living a productive life and being of service to others. With Feet on the Street Ministries, Maurice Lattimore is putting those lessons to work serving the homeless community and to those who want to help.
The focus of FOTS is to provide basic needs, such as food, clothing, a hot shower, and words of hope and dignity. Their service delivery model is rooted in Christian values that emphasize individual dignity regardless of current circumstances. Their objective is to provide participants a welcoming, engaging, and supportive environment, and to build relationships in the process.
Liminal Health & Fitness is a nonprofit organization helping people achieve health, happiness, and improved performance in everyday life. They provide accessible fitness and nutrition coaching to a diverse community of US-born individuals and resettled refugees.
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Five years ago, founder Nick Johnson was on sabbatical and in the worst shape he had been in his life. He started participating in CrossFit and immediately fell in love, but not just with fitness. He was captured by the community it created and the capacity for individual and corporate transformation.
Soon after, Nick became a certified coach in both fitness and nutrition. He and his wife had moved near Clarkston seven years earlier to serve the refugee community. Many of their neighbors were new Americans and he wanted to invite them into this transformative community. However, he knew the costs were prohibitive, so he started the gym in their garage to figure out how to make it work and to test whether he wanted to pursue this as a career. What followed brought significant transformation to his life and others. He is passionate about bringing the same service to anyone who wants it, regardless of finances or culture.
Nick envisioned a diverse community made up of both market-rate paying clients (mostly American-born) and clients who need financial help (which included anyone, but specifically refugees). He has found that most opportunities to build relationships with refugees involve service. By creating a business where both refugees and Americans are pursuing the same goals, Nick believes it is possible to foster real friendship and demonstrate mutual care for one another.
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.
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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.
Pharaoh’s Conclave (PCX) prepares marginalized youth for careers and opportunities in eSports by developing interests, providing access to scholarships, and connecting them to collegiate, internship, and job opportunities.
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Co-Founders Jakita and Erich Thomas grew up as avid gamers. They also became educators in Math, Science, and Computer Science. Eight years ago they watched an episode of 'Real Sports' with Bryant Gumbel that featured some of the first universities offering scholarships in eSports. However, when they looked at the eSports and video gaming scene in Atlanta, they didn't see many Black and Brown people. Youth they talked to either had no idea that careers existed in these industries, or they had no idea how to get started. They decided to create a pathway to show them.
Eighty-five percent of the youth Jakita and Erich work with come from communities historically marginalized in eSports and video gaming. Their solution includes an online skills-building platform, a league, and an apprenticeship program. Their online learning platform builds skills across several career pathways and connects youth to mentors while building a portfolio that showcases what they know and what they can do. Their league safely supports, guides, and mentors youth from kindergarten onward. Their apprenticeship program connects youth to vetted college, intern``ship, and career opportunities. Youth get on-the-job training and mentorship to ensure they’re able to succeed in the gaming workforce.
Peace of Thread empowers refugee women in the US by teaching them to sew and design bags and accessories using up-cycled luxury fabrics. Peace of Thread, Inc. started eleven years ago when Denise Smith was invited to come do something with some refugee women.
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Denise and her husband, Art, had spent about six and a half years in Lebanon working with Iraqi refugees as well as Lebanese natives. After returning home to Georgia and searching for where God wanted her, Denise was contacted by a friend of hers who was working in Clarkston with refugee children over the summer. The group was offering a mock-American classroom to help the new refugee children get ready for school in the fall. The workers noticed that the children’s moms were standing around and that they couldn’t communicate with them. Denise was invited to come down and possibly “do something” with them.
A few days later she woke in the middle of the night and the word “sewing” occurred to her. She asked the apartment manager if sewing might be something the women would like to do. He said, “YES!” They all needed a job that could help them learn how to live in America.
Since that fateful “Yes”, Peace of Thread has been able to empower many refugee women in Clarkston. Peace Of Thread welcomes refugee women from all different countries with open arms. They create a safe space where the women can build relationships as they are training. If there are immediate needs that Jesus brings to their attention, they do their best to meet those needs, or they put the women in touch with resources that can help.
Peace of Thread is a group of women on a mission to be Jesus's hands and feet to these women. And when Jesus opens the doors, they get to share about Him and what He has done for the world. Their website says it best: “Peace of Thread provides a job opportunity for women to work from home, meaning they can care for their families and make an income. Additionally, through employment with Peace of Thread, their artisans have access to counseling, free medical care, free ESL classes, job training, educational workshops and so much more.”
Purposeful Gourmet Foods is an 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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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