Today we’d like to introduce you to Evangeline Clarke.
Hi Evangeline, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in Florida and grew up in the Hollywood area, so my roots started in South Florida. I attended college at Florida State University and immediately started my career as an IT project management professional after graduating.
We didn’t have much growing up as a family, so from my childhood struggles, I understood the needs that families face at times. With the desire to give back to others, in 2016, my husband, Kino, and I started a nonprofit called Serving with GRACE that provides services to children and families.
For years, we worked with and led youth groups, as we had a natural passion for working with children. However, we also realized that you can’t impact the child without impacting the entire family or household. So, we knew we had to create something on a broader scale to make a larger impact in the lives of children and the community. So, out of our natural passion to give back and to help others in underserved communities, Serving with GRACE was created.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road that led us to where we are today with our nonprofit has been a learning experience, but very rewarding.
We didn’t know a lot about the nonprofit world coming into this, but we were determined to grab a hold of our vision and press toward our goal. In the beginning, it was a little challenging. Many things happened on a personal level within the first few years of founding our nonprofit. But, instead of allowing the obstacles along the way to stop us, we used them as momentum to keep going and embraced challenges as opportunities to learn from them, adjust, and grow.
On top of working a full-time job, and being a nonprofit founder, I am also a wife and the mother of three boys. So, balancing my workload can be difficult at times. But, I’ve learned to prioritize what’s most important at any given moment. Charity starts at home. So, I always want my family to know that they are important and to make sure I support my family and support my boys in their lives, with school, sports, etc.
I am amazed at how far we’ve come and look forward to what the future holds. We’ve had a tremendous amount of support that has helped us get to where we are today. We believe in our dream for our nonprofit (one day being a full-service family resource and community center) and we trust that we’ll get through any challenges that may come our way. I believe in having faith that is bigger than my fear, and that’s what gets me through difficult times.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Serving with GRACE, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides goods and services to children and families in underserved communities.
Our mission is to help rebuild the lives of children, families, and individuals experiencing economic challenges by providing essential items, household goods, clothing, and food. We ensure that individuals and families get the assistance they need if they are facing hardship or difficult times.
I am the co-founder, along with my husband, Kino Clarke, and I serve as the Executive Director. Some of the services and programs we offer include the following:
1. Grace’s Closet – a free family resource store that provides clothing and household goods free of charge to families in need.
2. Food pantry that provides non-perishable food.
3. College Scholarships to high school seniors.
4. Adopt-a-school program aimed at helping Title I schools with school supplies.
5. Annual events such as Toy Distributions and Back to school giveaways.
One of the things that sets us apart from others is our free family resource store, Grace’s Closet – This is a facility that we operate in Hollywood, FL that offers clothing and household items, free of charge to those in need. This facility is mainly furnished with donations we get from our retail donors, so the majority of what we provide includes new or fairly new products. Families get a dedicated appointment slot and can come in and choose what they want.
We provide them an opportunity to shop while keeping their dignity, enjoying an experience that they may not normally get due to circumstances that don’t allow them to. We believe that a little bit of help goes a long way. We are hoping that the little we do to give back to others will help them get through the challenging times that they may be facing.
When it comes to our brand, I am most proud of our name…Serving with GRACE. It’s a unique name and we chose the word “Grace” because we want to remind everyone that we try to serve one another in love and we should show love in the way we treat people and the way we interact with them.
Serving with GRACE is currently a volunteer-led organization, where our team consists of individuals who primarily work full-time jobs, but with a full-time passion for giving back. We can’t do what we do without our team and our volunteers. I am amazed at how much we can accomplish with our small, but mighty army!
And because we are a nonprofit, we rely on the donations and support of the community and our donors. We can do what we do because of the financial support we receive from our donors and supporters. We offer a sponsorship program for those who want to partner with us annually as well, but we accept donations at any time (big or small).
Families that are in need can always go to our website to learn more about our services or reach out to us. For those who want to partner with us and join us in our mission and possibly offer a donation, they can visit www.servingwithgrace.org/donate.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I feel my ability to have compassion for people has made me the most successful. In business and life, you must connect with people on all levels.
Even as we go to work on our jobs each day, we have to remember that people have personal lives outside of the work they are doing. Sometimes we have to disconnect from tasks and connect more with people, remember to put people over tasks. We have to be sure to show empathy when it is needed.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.servingwithgrace.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/servingwithgraceinc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/servingwithgraceinc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/serving-with-grace-inc
