Albany Helping Hands
Executive Director's Blog
Don R. Sparks, M.Ed., Executive Director
2024 Easter
March 15, 2024
Dear Friends,
As Easter approaches, I am reminded we serve a God of second chances. God believes so strongly in second chances that He came to earth at Christmas to become the living sacrifice at Easter. In doing so, He made the way for every one of us to have second chances in life and a relationship with Him. He has given me many second chances, what about you? Has God blessed you in spite of your mistakes or poor choices? At Albany Helping Hands, we are working with people who desperately need second chances, too.
For 25 years, our focus has been to help people cope with their desperate circumstances. We started by handing out sandwiches at the park. Now, because of your generosity, we house, clothe, and feed just over one hundred men, women, and children who have nowhere else to go. Thank you!
For our 26th year, we are moving forward with a new vision. Pathways to Independence is a new model of helping. Our vision is to focus on changing people, not just their circumstances. By helping residents acquire new knowledge and skills for pursuing independent living, we will greatly improve their chances of long-term independence.
Pathways to Independence involves training that will meet each of our residents where they are. We will provide them with new tools, strategies, and hope to help them escape homelessness and move into permanent housing and independent living.
Please join us by supporting our efforts to change the trajectory of life for the people we serve. Thank you.
Have a blessed and profound Easter.
Don Sparks, M.Ed.
Executive Director
2023
December 10, 2023
Albany Helping Hands is here to demonstrate the love of Jesus for people by providing for basic needs, encouraging faith, and giving hope for a brighter future. With every donation—be it time, cash, clothes, or household items—you participate in this mission and make it real.
In the early 1980’s, compassion for Albany’s homeless moved Pastor Les Bailey to action. He responded by sharing sandwiches with people in parks at first. Then it became food and shelter, and always the love of Jesus. Eventually, Pastor Bailey’s vision grew into a ministry you may know today as Albany Helping Hands. Over the years, many individuals, businesses, and churches have been vital and tangible partners in this work. Those gifts and support have blessed many hungry and desperate people who had nowhere else to turn.
Today, your support will enable as many as one hundred and twenty men, women, and children.
We can house up to six children with their mothers in our Bailey Home, all fed, housed, and clothed.
Your gifts truly make a difference in the lives of real people. Thank you for being the hands of compassion that are reaching out to hurting people to lift them up.
Can you think of a better time to give thanks and share the love and blessings of the Christmas season? I can’t either. Celebrate this wonder, and please send your gifts of compassion today!
Christmas Blessings!
Don R. Sparks, M.Ed., Executive Director
August 10, 2023
Today, 85 people won’t be sleeping on the ground or in a tent. Sixty-seven men and women will enjoy three nutritious meals. That is over 70,000 meals each year! And, thanks to your heartfelt generosity, instead of sleeping on the ground or on a park bench, they get to sleep in a clean bed after taking a hot shower.
Providing three meals a day, shelter, and access to hot showers helps create a sense of stability and well-being. Your continued support of Albany Helping Hands ensures that these basic needs are met consistently, and each man and woman can focus on their personal growth on the road to independent living.
Your support, and the support of others like you, has made this possible for over twenty-five years. Each man and woman at Albany Helping Hands has made the choice to live a life without drugs and alcohol. And, thanks to your support, many of them go on to live a successful life!
Your gift today will help these men and women live more “normal” lives. And may help them be reunited with their loved ones.
Send your gift today! Help us continue our work to demonstrate the love of Jesus through meeting basic needs, encouraging faith, and building hope for a brighter future. We cannot do this without you.
Sincerely,
Don R. Sparks
April 1, 2023
At Albany Helping Hands, we celebrate Easter. We celebrate because Jesus is alive! Hallelujah! After paying the penalty for our sin, He rose from the dead, opening the door to heaven to everyone.
The resurrection is the crowning event of the plan of salvation that God Himself instituted from the beginning of creation.
Easter is also a cornerstone of the foundation of faith that inspired Pastor Les Bailey to start loving people in a way that ultimately became the Albany Helping Hands Homeless Shelter.
Like Pastor Bailey, we believe God loves everyone, including those homeless or struggling with addiction.
A lot is going on here at the shelter, the Bailey Home, and at our firewood lot, U-Haul dealership, and thrift store. We are on the front lines of the unsolvable problems of homelessness, mental illness, and drug addiction. It is a challenging place to be.
There is one real hope for addressing and solving these problems and changing lives for eternity, and His name is Jesus. So, until better solutions are found, we are doing what we can to help.
That is where you come in! This year is Albany Helping Hands’ 25th Anniversary.
Your faithful support for what we are doing to help the homeless right here in Albany has been vital.
Over the last eight months, Albany Helping Hands has seen significant changes in our staff, and we have also been repeatedly portrayed poorly in the press. This has, understandably, concerned some of the people we serve and many of you who have supported us or are now considering such support.
We are working diligently with first responder agencies to keep Albany Helping Hands a place of safety and support for those we serve. We need your support now. Thank you!
Don R. Sparks, Executive Director
2022
December 31, 2022
Year-end Greetings,
I have been at the helm of Albany Helping Hands for three months. In that time, I’ve seen people near death from drug overdoses. I’ve seen many people whose lives are chaotic due to mental illness, drug use, or both.
We’ve had people die here at the shelter and in the street out front. I’ve had people tell me that, without Albany Helping Hands, they would be dead. Most of our residents are here because they have experienced one or more of life’s unexpected catastrophes. Things like unemployment, divorce, fire, the death of a loved one, incarceration, and so on.
Thank you for joining us through your generous and consistent support through financial gifts, clothing, blankets, household items, downed trees, appliances, and the list goes on. It is a humbling challenge to address the needs of those who come to us for help, and we certainly cannot do this alone.
The people we serve depend on the generosity of people like you who give as individuals, who give through your churches, who give through your businesses and other organizations and clubs. We do a lot here at Albany Helping Hands to help, and I am committed to improving and expanding the help and support we provide to the people we serve.
Another new year is upon us, and 2023 will be Albany Helping Hands’ 25th year of operation. We will all continue to be confronted by challenges AND opportunities. My goal is to make this the best year ever for Albany Helping Hands. Our success will be defined in terms of the number of people we can help and the obstacles we can help them overcome.
This year we plan to complete the construction of a 30-bed low-barrier shelter—a place where those who are still using drugs can come to get off the street and start the road to healing and a drug-free future. We hope to rebuild our computer classroom to provide educational opportunities, including GED completion, resume’ writing, and job-hunting tools. We will continue to work on fully developing our TOPS Program and expand life-skills training. Last year was a challenge. The new year is full of opportunities.
Please continue to partner with us and keep Albany Helping Hands and the people we serve in your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you, and may God continue to bless and prosper you!
Don R Sparks, Executive Director
December 1, 2022
The Christmas season will soon be upon us. A time of celebration and thanksgiving for God’s gift to us through the birth of His son, Jesus. We at Albany Helping Hands (AHH) hope that your Christmas celebrations with family and loved ones is joyous and blessed. As you look forward to this season of giving, I hope you will remember those who would not have a warm, safe place to stay if it weren’t for AHH.
Albany Helping Hands was birthed out on one man’s vision, Pastor Les Bailey, to share the love of Jesus by meeting the most basic needs of people who had no home. Today, 40 years later, the mission remains the same: to serve and support those experiencing homelessness by extending God’s love in tangible ways.
To fill that mission, we are housing roughly 100 people who have nowhere else to go. We serve meals to any who come through our doors three times a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. We provide clothing, hot showers, and through March 31st, a warm, dry place to spend the night for those who are living on the streets or in their cars.
Your generous support during this season of goodwill enables us to continue to pursue our mission to touch and change lives. We depend on the generosity of everyday people like you for gifts of your time, talent, and treasure.
As the new Executive Director, I am energized by the opportunities that I see to continue our legacy of sharing the love of Jesus by meeting the needs of the homeless in our community. I invite you to partner with us.
Merry Christmas!
Don Sparks, Executive Director