While the number of neighbors in need continues to grow across Dunwoody and Sandy Springs, the Community Assistance Center is expanding its community impact to fill gaps.
The CAC released its 2025 Annual Report on March 24, highlighting the nonprofit’s crisis intervention work, its new adult education and career services hub, and the $18 million Compassion in Action fundraising campaign.
CEO Francis K. Horton said 2025 was a year of growth for the CAC, largely in response to the rising need in the community. The nonprofit increased its community donors by 25% and more than doubled its contributions.
“Increasing economic pressure is impacting our lower-income families, but also an increasing number of middle-income earners,” Horton said. “The needs are creeping into more and more of our community, and we have to scale to meet them.”
How the nonprofit evolves
Doris Pereira, director of impact and innovation, said many of the nonprofit’s clients in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody have a tough time paying rent. Most one-bedroom apartments in the area start at $1,500 a month.
“With all these data indicators and assumptions, we decided to grow our capacity to be able to support 30% more clients than before,” Pereira said. “It’s working beautifully, due to the great support we have in our community.”
Last year, the Community Assistance Center served 9,632 clients through all programs, prevented 1,108 evictions, and distributed 1.1 million pounds of food. More than 90% of clients reached housing stability, and 68% resolved their crisis six months after receiving financial assistance.
The CAC’s new Empowerment Center is a bridge between a family crisis requiring financial help and an independent future for its clients. Pereira oversees all of the nonprofit’s programs, from rental assistance to food pantries.
“Our most recent initiative into workforce development for people to reskill, upskill, and have the tools to join the workforce,” Pereira said. “The skill set that was demanded five years ago is different than what is needed today in the workforce.”
In its annual report, the CAC attributes its record-level impact last year to donors, volunteers, and community partners. The nonprofit has more than 500 volunteers contributing more than 50,000 hours a month.
Hopeful stories in tough times
The cost of living in metro Atlanta’s Central Perimeter continues to rise along with the rest of the country. Pereira said she doesn’t see it stopping soon.
“Their incomes are not increasing at the same pace as the cost of living,” Pereira said. “The latest trend is that we see more middle-income earners coming to CAC than before, and therefore the need continues to grow.”
The nonprofit uses a holistic approach with its clients, first helping with them with basic needs like food, clothing, and housing until they have some stability.
Rough Draft Atlanta asked Pereira if she had noticed an improvement in client outcomes over time. She responded with a recent anecdote about a single mother who lost her job.
After working as a teacher for eight years, a single mother was laid off and had exhausted her savings on rent payments.
Pereira said the CAC provided rental assistance and encouraged her to enroll in its workforce development program to find an industry that could support her. The client eventually increased her income by $18,000 after completing a certified nursing assistant program with the nonprofit’s support.
“This is a person who is now employed full time … she is going to be able to provide for herself or her daughter,” Pereira said. “This is a generational investment that impacts a family and the community. One of our goals for the next year is to scale the Thrive program to continue supporting people.”
CAC Strategic Plan
The Community Assistance Center’s Compassion in Action campaign is an $18 million fundraiser, corresponding with the nonprofit’s 2025-27 Strategic Plan.
“This campaign is to support our core operating needs while enabling CAC to invest strategically and to increase our organizational capacity,” Pereira said. “The strategic plan’s goal is to grow the client base by 30%.”
The nonprofit helps clients living in the city of Doraville, whose children attend school in Dunwoody. Pereira said school principals alerted the nonprofit to a number of lower-income families in need of assistance, and the CAC made inroads.
Many community members, whether they’re professionals who lost their jobs or are living paycheck to paycheck, don’t learn about the CAC until there’s a crisis, Pereira said.
“We proactively decided last year to launch this outreach to 122 apartment communities to share our information, our programs, our initiatives, with them,” she said. “The CAC helps people, residents of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody who are facing a financial crisis … any person can qualify to receive our services.”
Read more about the CAC’s annual report and community work here.