When the Tiah family’s apartment complex caught fire early Christmas morning in 2020, they had no idea how they’d recover.
“One of the neighbors thought it was time to do fireworks or something,” said Kporseh Tiah. “It was 3:00 in the morning, but everyone in the complex was able to get out OK.”
At the time, she was pregnant and by sheer luck she, her 1-year-old daughter Amari, who has Down Syndrome, and her husband were alerted by a neighbor and suffered no physical injuries. But everything they owned was ruined by smoke or water.
As is its practice, the Red Cross was on hand and provided the family with a hotel room for at least a week and helped with a few items of clothing, but her family needed more help than any one agency offered.
A community ‘angel’
Terri Hoye, a community fixture for providing assistance to those in need, came by the apartment complex and gave Tiah her business card.
“I didn’t want to call, at first,” Tiah said. “I was frustrated and pregnant and just wanted to lay my head down and not think about what had happened.”
Her husband Fornatee urged her to make the call. “He was right,” she said. “Once I called Terri, she helped us with almost everything we needed — baby clothes, formula, furniture, clothes, you name it.”
The family car wasn’t running and Hoye found a mechanic who was willing to offer the parts at cost and greatly reduce his price for labor. It turned out the car was pretty much beyond repair, so Hoye found someone who donated a car to the family.
“The blessings just kept coming,” said Tiah. “We’d never heard of her or knew that someone was out there doing the things that she does.”
That, said Hoye, is one of her biggest hurdles — letting people know that there are organizations providing a myriad of services for people in the Peachtree Corners and Norcross area. She can help connect those in need to those who have something to give.
Although many may wonder if Hoye is an earth-bound angel, she didn’t actually fall from the sky. She’s been active in the community for more than three decades. Hoye served 29 years on staff at Norcross First United Methodist Church and two years as the Norcross-Peachtree Corners Catalyst for Unite.
Helping families like the Tiahs had become her calling, so she branched out and formed The Alliance of Norcross-Peachtree Corners about a year ago. It’s a nonprofit that works with all sectors of the community to help remove barriers that prevent many community members to thrive.
“As the years went by, I noticed that there was not anyone in the community to connect the dots for people,” said Hoye. “For instance, I was sitting in a school council meeting one day, and this mom, who was on the council, was just in tears because she needed her porch redone, …she’d gotten a notice from code enforcement. …And I said to her, ‘You know that the city has a Brush with Kindness program, and you just have to go on the site and fill out an application.’”
It turned out the woman qualified for the assistance that she didn’t know existed.
Making the right connections
To help the Tiah family, Hoye partnered with Neighborhood Cooperative Ministry (NCM) for immediate needs such as clothing and food. Her long-standing relationships with that organization, and many others in the community, allow her to immediately know who can help and in what ways.
“We partner with Neighborhood Cooperative Ministry on many occasions when working with people in our community, as they typically can meet the immediate emergency need for things like shelter, food, clothing, bill assistance, as well as helping with long-term solutions, such as obtaining job skills and finding employment,” Hoye said.
Ryan Jones, director of Community Development for NCM, said Hoye helped him decide how he could serve the non-profit community.
“I met Terri before I even worked at a nonprofit,” said Jones. “I was a banker. I was still exploring opportunities; I had figured out in my mind that I wanted to work in the nonprofit world, and I was kind of exploring what that would look like. Terri was one of the first people I met and she’s such a good example of helping people and bringing people together.”
Jones added that his organization does things that are easy to quantify. “We can have direct numbers to show our effect on the community,” he said. “We’ve helped X number of families, collected X amount of food, etc. But with Terri, …her capacity for relationship building and connecting people [is immeasurable.]”
That’s why the service she provides is sorely needed, he added.
Helping the helpers
Hoye’s connections run the gamut. She not only partners with groups that are in a position to give, she also has affiliations with organizations that need help themselves. One of her most fulfilling relationships is with Landmark Church.
“We’re a smaller church, but we’re active,” said Rev. Lance Campbell. “We feed about 100 families a month, but we’re doing it all on a skeleton crew. We just do not have the resources. We don’t have funds.”
The congregation is largely made up of people who spend a lot of time on the street, so the church doesn’t have large coffers from regular tithers. “We’ve got a benevolence ministry and we’ve got the missions,” Campbell said. “We kind of direct people who come and say they need housing. Well, we can’t do anything other than …buy you a hotel for a night, maybe on a good day.”
So Hoye has become an integral part of the Landmark ministry by providing the connections. “She has provided us with just a great grid of resource information,” said Campbell. “I know that if it’s not on that grid, …I can call her and go, ‘Hey, here’s the guy, here’s the need; where do we go?’ And she immediately knows who to talk to. …She’s kind of the face of community resources for us.”
Doing so much for so many would lead one to believe that Hoye has a huge team working with her. But, besides volunteers, the staff of The Alliance consists of one person — her.
Hoye takes a modest salary and puts the remaining funds toward removing the barriers facing so many in the community. To keep the organization moving, The Alliance accepts donations and applies for grants and other sources of funding.
For more information about The Alliance Norcross-Peachtree Corners, go to thealliancenpc.org.
Birthday celebration
To commemorate its first year, The Alliance Norcross-Peachtree Corners is hosting a Birthday Bash Celebration Luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 15, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at Norcross Cultural Arts and Community Center, 10 College St. in Norcross.
The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Register by emailing terrih@thealliancenpc.org.
