Alumni Story: Tina Cook: Helping People Invest in Their Own Lives

Tina Cook graduated from City Vision in 2014, and now serves as community resource specialist and office manager for the Family Resource Center in Athens, GA. Her own experience of homelessness and addiction, along with the practical tools provided by City Vision’s Addiction Studies program, have prepared her not only to meet the immediate needs of FRC’s clients, but to start them on the path to self-sufficiency. When clients come into the center, Cook does an assessment and tries to go beyond the immediate need, like help paying rent, to see if they may need budgeting classes or help finding a job.

“When people are in fear or crisis mode, it’s hard for them to look at the big picture,” Cook said to Faith & Family magazine. “That’s where I come in.” Regardless of how her clients are struggling, Cook avoids judgment. “[These] are broken people,” she says. “They don’t need more hurt.”

Tina was profiled in Athens Now, an online magazine:

“Tina Cook is well known in [Athens, Georgia] as the hard working Director of the Family Resource Center located on Jefferson Street, and I first met her at the monthly Chamber of Commerce coffees that are held at various businesses in our area. I immediately liked her, and one of the things that impressed me is that she is both uncommonly transparent and intensely joyful. I became aware that she has a personal ‘death, burial and resurrection story,’ and seeing as we are coming upon the season of Resurrection and Passover, now seemed the appropriate time to tell it.

We met for the interview in the FRC board room, which is lined with inspirational sayings as well as scriptures. One that stuck out was written by Mark Twain, and it says:

‘Challenges make life interesting, however, overcoming them makes life meaningful.'”

To read the full, original article on Athens Now, click here.