Zabrina R. Minor
The executive director of an organization that helps the homeless has been elected president of the Young Professionals of Oak Ridge.
Zabrina Minor is the organization’s new president. She is also executive director of Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope, or TORCH.
Other leaders elected during the YPOR’s January business meeting are Aaron Holbrook as vice president and Thomas Dyke as secretary/treasurer. [Read more…]
English classes for speakers of other languages will be offered free of charge at Grace Lutheran Church in Oak Ridge beginning Wednesday.
The classes will be held on Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m. A key orientation and assessment session is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7. It’s required and will place students at appropriate class levels, a press release said.
Grace Lutheran is participating in the classes as a member of the newly formed ESOL Community and Clinch Valley Collaborative, the release said. [Read more…]
Each year in January, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, coordinating with county mayors in conjunction with the Tennessee Valley Coalition to End Homelessness, do what is called a Point in Time Count of the homeless. This is an unduplicated count on a single night of the people in a specific county who are experiencing homelessness.
The Point in Time Count of 2011 showed 28 homeless individuals. The PIT count of Jan. 24, 2013, found a total of 86 people were homeless (sheltered and unsheltered) and 68 people were precariously housed (almost homeless).
Unsheltered means that the people sleep outside without a roof over their heads or in places not fit for human habitation like a car or an abandoned building. Sheltered means that they were either in transitional housing such as half-way houses or they were actually living in a homeless shelter. Precariously housed are more commonly called “couch surfers.†They live at the homes of friends or family but do not have an address of their own. [Read more…]
Five hundred thirty-six runners start in the Secret City Half Marathon on Briarcliff Avenue on Sunday morning.
A Florida man finished first in the Secret City Half Marathon on Sunday morning, crossing the finish line almost eight minutes ahead of the second-place runner.
Jason McLeod, 21, of Orlando, Fla., finished the 13.1-mile course in 1:11:53. It was his first half marathon.
McLeod has never competed in a full marathon either, but he did run cross country for four years at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn.
Gina Rouse, 34, of Knoxville finished second with a time of 1:19:50. She was also the top female runner among the 536 athletes who started Sunday. She has competed in marathons, including the Nashville Marathon in 2006 and Atlanta Marathon in 2011. [Read more…]
Experts from social service agencies and faith-based groups will discuss homelessness in Anderson County during a Tuesday evening forum.
The forum starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. It’s been organized by the Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope, or TORCH, and ORUUC.
The experts and community members will also discuss factors that contribute to homelessness in the county, explore potential solutions, and consider how to begin a 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness, a press release said. The discussion will also outline ways that people can be involved in the upcoming “Point In Time Count.”
 [Read more…]
The Secret City Half Marathon Weekend at the end of November will feature 5K and 10K races, and a new Health and Fitness Expo.
The Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau announced the changes on Wednesday. The marathon weekend is Nov. 30-Dec. 1.
“With less than two months to the race, runners and walkers are encouraged to lace up their running shoes and sign up soon to participate in one of these great family friendly athletic events in Oak Ridge,” a press release said.
The first-ever Secret City 5K and 10K races will be held Saturday, Nov. 30, at 7:30 a.m. Both courses start and end near the Oak Ridge Civic Center and run through the streets of Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
A new nonprofit organization that helps homeless families in Anderson County will show a documentary on Friday that features families struggling after the Great Recession, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The 7 p.m. screening of “American Winter,” an HBO documentary, has been organized by TORCH (Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope). The film was produced during one winter in one American city, and it presents an “intimate snapshot of the state of the nation’s economy as it is playing out in millions of American families, and highlights the human consequences of the decline of the middle class and the fracturing of the American Dream,” a press release said. [Read more…]
First United Methodist Church and Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope, or TORCH, are hosting a forum on homelessness from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
The free forum will be at First United Methodist Church in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
As part of an effort to count homeless individuals and families for the Jan. 24 “Point In Time Count,” or PITC, a free community meal at Grace Covenant Church at 5 p.m. Thursday is open to community members who are homeless, a press release said.
The dinner is being organized by Trinity Outreach Center of Hope, or TORCH, a new nonprofit working to support the most economically challenged in our area and leading the Jan. 24 homeless count in Anderson County.
A local organization known as TORCHÂ will conduct a street count of homeless people in Anderson County on Jan. 24 as part of the 2013 Point-In-Time Count coordinated by Tennessee Valley Coalition to End Homelessness.
The Point-In-Time Count is a survey of homeless people in every county across the United States. Volunteers are needed to help with the count in Anderson County, a press release said.
A local organization and church have organized a Jan. 11 forum on homelessness, and the public is invited to attend.
The forum will start at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 11 at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church. It’s been organized by the Trinity Out-Reach Center of Hope (TORCH) and the church.
A press release said the forum will bring together experts from social service agencies, faith-based groups, and the wider community for a frank discussion about homelessness that will include the definition, faces of homelessness, an exploration of potential solutions, and ways that people can be involved in the Jan. 24 “Point In Time Count” (PITC).
