When you think of Home Repairs Ministries, you probably picture tools and volunteer crews repairing homes for vulnerable homeowners. But the impact of Home Repairs extends beyond individual households — it reaches into the heart of the community, helping other nonprofits amplify their missions.
Jim Hollandsworth, founder and executive director of Path United, has experienced this firsthand.
Path United is a nonprofit that ministers to low-income families in mobile home parks in Gwinnett County. “We drove through a mobile home park back in 2009 and met a family. The mom asked if we would help her kids with homework because she didn’t speak English. Almost everyone who lives in this park has immigrated from Mexico,” Jim said.
With this one family, the Hollandsworths started a homework club which has since expanded to include a LOT more children. As the organization grew, it was given a trailer of its own in that community to have a more permanent space for its services.
Since then, they’ve expanded to four communities in Georgia and one in Tennessee.
“We turned that original trailer into a community center, which is what we still use today [in our work in that park],” he said. “We’ve been in that building for almost 15 years!”
Ministry often comes with its share of challenges, and Path United has experienced this directly.
“Recently, we experienced some vandalism; someone broke all of the windows [in one of our community centers],” Jim shared.
Hoping to fix the damage themselves, several people from Path United looked for new windows at Lowes and Home Depot.
“We measured the windows and took the measurements over there, but [neither store] had windows in this size. We just hit a bunch of roadblocks, trying to fix it ourselves,” he said.
That’s when it clicked — Jim remembered Home Repairs Ministries, which had helped Path United with a project over the summer.
“HRM’s project manager and I met in person and he took a look at the windows. He was like, ‘Hey, we got this!’ — he just knew exactly what to do,” Jim said. “A glass company custom-made some windows for us. Home Repairs took out the old ones and ordered the new ones, and it only took about a week for them to get the man who came out and installed them for us.”
This was a huge blessing for Path United!
“Working in a nonprofit, I’m a fund-raiser,” Jim said. “I spend a lot of time raising money and essentially all of it goes into our regular operations. Things are tight. We don’t have extra money.
“When facility emergencies happen, we don’t always have an endless pile of cash to just pay a contractor to fix the issue.”
When two organizations, both trying to make a difference in the community, can walk in unity and be a blessing using their unique giftings, the Lord is glorified.
“[Home Repairs] has just been a blessing to come alongside us. We were going around and around in circles, trying to figure out how to do it ourselves.” Jim shared, “In my role, for the sake of our teachers who work in that neighborhood, I don’t want them spending all day long trying to fix windows. They work with kids. It was a beautiful story of everyone using their God-given gifts to solve a problem.
“[It’s so encouraging] just having someone that we can call a partner. That’s how I totally view HRM. These guys are super valuable partners in our ministry,” he said.
The window project was not the first time that Path United has given Home Repairs Ministries a call.
“[Last summer], we had a situation with a porch and a door at our Sugar Hill site. We didn’t really know what to do. We didn’t have time or money,” Jim said. “I reached out to Heather and said, ‘Hey, What do you think about this?’ I wasn’t sure if we would fit [their target audience for ministry.] But immediately, Heather said, ‘Absolutely! This is what we do!’
“HRM [took care of the issue] quickly. It was incredible! One of our church partners paid for the materials.”
It did not cost Path United a dime — but Jim felt the job was done with a level of skill well worth paying for.
“Home Repairs Ministries is just the perfect combination of ‘Hey, we have a heart. We’re willing to help. And by the way, we do really, really good work.’ It’s expertise, heart and trust.”
Path United has many different partners that help with all the different facets of their ministry, and they are happy to add Home Repairs Ministries to that growing list.
“To have a partner that’s trusted and good at the work is just so cool,” Jim shared. “To be able to call on Home Repairs Ministries is a huge blessing. They are amazing.”