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Lawyers in the House with Montlick - Your Legal Podcast
031 Atlanta Children’s Shelter & Montlick’s Community Service

031 Atlanta Children’s Shelter & Montlick’s Community Service

Lawyers in the House with Montlick

Attorneys in Podcast: Alan Saltzman, Esq.

Veronica is joined by Montlick Managing Attorney Alan Saltzman to discuss the unique challenges of representing unhoused clients in personal injury cases, and the importance of providing legal representation and protecting the legal rights of all people, regardless of housing status.

Plus, two very special guests from the Atlanta Children’s Shelter, a non-profit dedicated to helping families dealing with housing insecurity: Early Childhood Education Director Allison Griffith and Family Services Director Mellony Gaston.

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The purpose of this show is to provide general information about the law. Our guests will not provide any individualized legal advice. If you have a personal situation and need legal advice, contact us for your free legal consultation with a Montlick attorney.

Topics Discussed on the Podcast

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00:05	ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Lawyers in the House. With Montlick. Wish you had a lawyer in the family? Now you do. Here’s your host. Veronica Waters. VERONICA: Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of Lawyers in the House with Montlick. I’m your host, Veronica Waters. So happy to invite you back into the house with us today for another episode.
00:30	VERONICA: This one, you’re gonna really like because we’ve got more very special guests here for you, including someone who is not in the Montlick family, but kind of part of the Montlick family and we’ll explain coming up. First, I want to talk about an incident which, although it grabbed headlines more than two decades ago, has stuck with me long after it made my jaw drop. There was a homeless man who was hit by a car driven by a nurse’s aide on her way home.
01:01	VERONICA: The impact, the impact was so hard that it sent the man through this woman’s car windshield. And rather than stop or take him for help, she kept driving home. The man was alive. He was begging for help.
01:32	VERONICA: She parked her car. And for about four hours, I believe it was, that it took for him to pass away from his injuries, she would occasionally come outside, check on him. He was still alive, still pleading for help. And she never got him any help. And he passed away, embedded in her windshield. Then she and some friends dumped the body.
01:58	VERONICA: And ultimately, she was found out, and she did serve time for that crime. But I have never forgotten the sheer horror of hearing about this. And wondering, first of all, what might have happened if Gregory Biggs had lived? Who would have helped him? His family hired a lawyer after it happened, but had he survived his injuries, would he have known where to turn for help?
02:27	VERONICA: And how did Gregory Biggs begin experiencing homelessness in the first place? That brings us to what we’re talking about today. Here on Lawyers in the House with Montlick, our very special guests are from the Atlanta Children’s Shelter and from Montlick Injury Attorneys and we’re going to start off with a repeat guest and one whom I’m sure is one of your favorites by now- Alan Saltzman, who is the senior managing attorney with Montlick and was on, I believe, our very… our second episode, right?
03:00	VERONICA: Talking about medical malpractice. It was an amazing show. He’s been back once or twice since then. And today, Alan is here because the Atlanta Children’s Shelter is a huge part of his life and what he has done with his time. Alan, first, let’s talk a little bit about your career in law as we introduce you – or reintroduce you to our wonderful audience. You’ve been an attorney now – we just calculated – for four decades. ALAN: That sounds about right. VERONICA: And at Montlick, for most of that time.
03:31	ALAN: Yes. VERONICA: Yeah, about 37 years. ALAN: Yeah, 37 years. VERONICA: So, I’m sure I asked you this before. But for folks who are just starting to get to know you, what was it about Montlick that drew you in and has kept you there for all this time? ALAN: Well, I’ve always been interested in injury cases, medical malpractice. These are things that I wanted to concentrate in.
03:53	ALAN: And when I had the opportunity to work at the firm, I realized that I was involved in many areas of law (criminal law, bankruptcy, divorce, and some personal injury law) but personal injury was my true love. And a friend of mine was working at the firm named John Pierce, who I worked with in the past at another firm. And he told me about the firm and I did an interview and here I am ever since. VERONICA: Did it sort of feel like home from the beginning? Like, could you tell it was going to be such a good fit?
04:23	ALAN: It really did. It was a really good fit because I loved what I was doing from the beginning. I really like helping people. I don’t like billing for hours. I like giving people checks. And I like to know that I’ve done something to change somebody’s life. And that’s a really important gift that you can have if you love the work that you’re doing. VERONICA: Changing someone’s life for the better.
04:48	VERONICA: Changing someone’s life for the better – part, I’m sure, of what the Atlanta Children’s Shelter makes a major part of its mission every single day. Joining us from Atlanta Children’s Shelter is Allison Griffith, who has been with ACS for a few years now and is its early education early childhood education director. Early childhood education director. So tell us, Allison, what brought you to Atlanta Children’s Shelter? ALLISON: My background is in education, and I was an elementary assistant principal for about ten years.
05:21	ALLISON: And I started helping a student who needed some extra support, started mentoring him, built a long-term relationship. He’s actually going to graduate college in May this year. And so, because of him and the impact that he had on me and our relationship, I decided that I needed to step out into the nonprofit sector so that I could make more of a difference and have more of an impact. VERONICA: What was it about that student? Was it a homeless student? ALLISON: It was not a homeless student.
05:50	ALLISON: He just had some difficulties focusing and paying attention in class, ended up in my office frequently. So, we became pretty close because of all the time he spent in the office. And so, I saw so much potential in him from the very beginning when he was 11 years old. And so, just kind of made it my mission to help him succeed and become a good human. VERONICA: So, you just wanted to go into the nonprofit sector because you wanted to work more closely with children? Because I believe your career track was taking you higher up the principal chain.
06:24	ALLISON: Yes, that’s correct. My career path would have taken me higher up, which in return would have taken me farther away from the children. And my passion is kids. And working with kids and the joy that they bring. And so, I decided that I needed to go back to that. And I felt like the nonprofit sector was the best way to do that. VERONICA: We’re talking to Allison Griffith and Alan Saltzman here, and we’re talking about homelessness, helping people navigate through those waters, including the legal ones that they sometimes have to swim in, and the people who are behind that effort.
06:58	VERONICA: How does it happen? Who helps them out? Thank you so much, Allison and Alan, for being in the house. ALAN: Happy to be here. VERONICA: Let’s start off sort of introducing me and everybody to Atlanta Children’s Shelter, Allison. What is the mission? How long has it been in existence?
07:26	ALLISON: So, Atlanta Children’s Shelter has been in existence since 1986. So, for 37 years, kind of a landmark in Atlanta. We help families facing homelessness with young children. So, families in the entire metro Atlanta area with children from 6 weeks old to 6 years old. We help them to get back on their feet and to become self-sufficient. VERONICA: What does that look like? ALLISON: It is a long-term plan. It’s a long-term commitment. I often tell people it’s not a band aid or a quick fix.
07:56	ALLISON: And when families commit their time and energy to be a part of our program, they’re committing for an extended period of time, typically several years. And our mission is to break their cycle of poverty and help them become self-sufficient by providing comprehensive social services and quality early childhood education. VERONICA: So, it occurs to me, social services probably help a lot. But even so, how do people continue to support their families if they don’t have work?
08:28	ALLISON: The number one barrier to becoming self-sufficient when you have young children is the cost of child care. And so, we eliminate that barrier by providing free quality early childhood education. And together, in tandem, our family services program and our early childhood education program provide the resources, the support and the time to go and get a scholarship to earn your GED to earn a higher education to earn a livable wage.
09:01	ALLISON: And to know that while you’re doing all of those things to help your family and improve your situation, that your children are being cared for in a loving and nurturing environment. And we’re helping them to meet their developmental milestones so that you’re able to take care of them and not have to worry about your children. VERONICA: So, this looks like… Am I picturing correctly, like an actual little school? ALLISON: Yes! That’s correct. So, we are a state licensed, nationally accredited child care agency. So, I tell people all the time, it’s just like what you would look for, for somewhere to take your own children.
09:34	ALLISON: We’re NAECY accredited, we’re quality rated, we’re licensed through the state, we have 5 classrooms from infants all the way to kindergarten. We added kindergarten in 2019 to expand our continuum of care. And so, we just provide a quality education, help them to meet their developmental milestones, provide meals, snacks, enrichment opportunities, lots of things to help them to be successful, not only in their early years, but in elementary school and beyond.
10:05	VERONICA: When did you know that you were really making a difference in someone’s life there? ALLISON: For me, in addition to just the joy that the children bring, but to know you’re making a difference is when a mom – we serve mostly single moms – and so a mom will come in for her first day to drop off her children at the center. And it sounds cliché to say, but it makes you want to just say, you know, this is the first day of the rest of your life.
10:35	ALLISON: And just the gratitude that they have and the relief that you can just see and feel when you start telling them about all of the things that we’re going to do for their children, that they don’t have to worry about anymore and that they can focus on a livable wage and gainful employment. VERONICA: I guess you can probably see it in their eyes. ALLISON: Yes. VERONICA: The hope and the gratitude and the joy. ALLISON: Yes. VERONICA: Yeah. Thank you so much for talking to me about that. Allison. Now, Alan Saltzman, with Montlick Injury Attorneys, Allison said ACS has been in existence since the late 80s, mid to late 80s.
11:07	VERONICA: So, have you been involved with Atlanta Children’s Shelter that entire time? ALAN: No, I met a gentleman that worked in our building and his name is Ron Davie. He became the president of the board of directors, and he asked me out to lunch one day and he took me down to the children’s shelter, and I absolutely fell in love. It truly is a place as you said, Allison, where I would put my own kids and it’s probably better than the place that we had our kids when they were pre-kindergarten and kindergarten age. It’s that kind of a loving place.
11:37	VERONICA: What is it that really jumped out at you, though, that made you sort of want to get involved? ALAN: Oh, that’s easy. The idea that people come in and they are homeless and we’re not talking about stereotypical panhandlers. We’re talking about, Veronica, people that for whatever reason had an accident or had a mishap in their family, something happened to them that caused them to be unable to pay their rent.
12:03	ALAN: They find themselves on the street and they don’t know where to turn and the Atlanta Children’s Shelter (ACS) is a place where they can go to get back on their feet and get jobs and have their children taken care of while all of that is happening. VERONICA: You know, it’s interesting, too, that I’ve learned along the way that homelessness has a lot of different faces. I don’t mean the people themselves. That is the obvious thing. But it comes in so many different forms. It doesn’t necessarily mean living on the street.
12:34	VERONICA: It’s also… you could be living in a hotel. You could be living in a shelter. You could be living out of your car. And some of those folks sometimes need legal help. ALAN: Absolutely. And it’s good to have a place to go. It’s nice to know that there are people that can help you. VERONICA: We are going to get into what that looks like and talk about, does everybody out there deserve to have a lawyer? ALAN: I think they do.
13:04	VERONICA: That’s coming up. Straight ahead on Lawyers in the House with Alan Saltzman and Alison Griffith. I’m Veronica Waters, stay with us. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8 a.m. every Sunday if you want to listen live on 95.5 WSV. VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. I’m Veronica Waters here with our special guests Allison Griffith and Alan Saltzman from Montlick Injury attorneys.
13:32	VERONICA: Allison is from Atlanta Children’s Shelter. We’re talking about the faces of homelessness and how the folks who are out there in the streets, in their cars, in hotels and shelters actually get legal representation and the help they need to improve their situations when they need it. Alan has been on the board of Atlanta Children’s Shelter for some time. You did a full 6 years.
14:02	ALAN: That’s correct. I believe I was on the board from about 2015 until 2021. And enables us to give back to the community through the Atlanta Children’s Shelter with Montlick and we’re always trying to find things that we can do for the community. And it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done in my life. VERONICA: Alan, before we took a break, I was talking about… does everyone have the right to legal representation? I was reminded of the story that you shared about seeing someone get hit. And no one stopping.
14:36	ALAN: Absolutely. I did see someone get hit on Roswell Road many years ago when it was raining. And nobody stopped. And I thought to myself, this is crazy. Here’s a man who was just hit by a car going 30 miles an hour and he’s up in the air. He lands on the cement on Roswell Road and nobody stopped. Of course, I got out. I called 9-1-1 and some witnesses came out then when they saw me getting out, it was raining.
15:03	ALAN: It was messy, but I was struck by the fact that nobody stopped. It was as if it were just a homeless person with a cart with everything he owned, and he was laying there on the road and people just kept going. VERONICA: Amazing, amazing. And is that what that looks like typically when sometimes police are even on the scene? ALAN: Well, it could be one of the types of cases that we’ve seen over the years over and over again, is somebody will get hit and hurt really badly and they can’t speak for themselves.
15:33	ALAN: So, the person that hits them will say, well, he or she just walked out right in front of my car. Well, that may or may not be true. And if it isn’t true, we never get the ability to actually try to find out until we meet that person in the hospital. And often it’s Grady. VERONICA: And who is going to speak for that person? Who is going to call you guys to tell you that somebody needs help?
16:01	ALAN: I don’t know how it happens, but somebody will call us on behalf of that person or that person will be convalescing in the hospital and give us a call. It could be a nurse that suggested our firm or perhaps the person saw one of our media outlets. VERONICA: Yeah, it could have been a billboard. Could have been a commercial on the TV in the room while they’re convalescing. Thank you so much, Allison Griffith, for being with us in the house with me and Alan Saltzman.
16:28	VERONICA: I know you have just been at Atlanta Children’s Shelter for a few years, but it’s already made an impact in your life. ALLISON: Yes, thank you, Veronica, for bringing this awareness and Alan to our agency. I am grateful to be able to change the trajectory of our families’ lives and have such a significant impact on them and on our community. VERONICA: Coming up, what the face of homelessness looks like and what those legal cases look like too. I’m Veronica Waters, stay with us.
16:59	You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8 a.m. every Sunday on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: Hey, hey, welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. I’m your host, Veronica Waters. We want to thank you so much for being with us for another week. Make sure you like and subscribe to us on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. You will get a notification every single time a new episode drops so you don’t miss any of these very special gems.
17:30	VERONICA: And remember, you can always find us on every social platform. Follow us on Twitter. We’re on Instagram. We’re on Facebook. @MontlickLaw, every place you want to find us. And you know what? If you want a really cool repository for the shows and be able to listen and watch at the same time, just go to LawyersintheHouse.com. You can find everything there, including a form for you to send us your personal questions 24/7. Thanks for being with us. Here today on Lawyers in the House with Montlick, we have very special guests.
18:00	VERONICA: Of course, you know, Alan Saltzman, the senior managing attorney at Montlick, who’s been with the firm for most of his 40-year career. We also have a very special guest in the house. Another personality from Atlanta Children’s Shelter and her name is Melanie Gaston. Actually, she says her name is Gaston. I say it’s Gaston, but she wants me to stop doing that, I think. You can tell the truth, you know? MELANIE: I like it.
18:29	VERONICA: Melanie is the family services director at Atlanta Children’s Shelter. And you have heard about the mission of the shelter, how it helps families experiencing homelessness and by families, they mean folks who have children with them. And homelessness takes so many different forms, Melanie. Tell me something that really jumped out at you when you got into this field.
18:56	MELANIE: I think coming into this field, I actually thought what the stereotypical examples of homelessness was, actually. I thought it was the folks that were panhandling on the street but found out very shortly after starting to work with the Atlanta Children’s Shelter that that just was not the case. That our families just had like a mishap. And our mothers might be fleeing domestic violence and had to leave everything and move to a shelter.
19:24	MELANIE: And that was the thing that probably stood out the most to me, that it wasn’t the stereotypical thing that you saw on the street. VERONICA: How did that sort of aha moment come to you? MELANIE: I had a mother who had already been through school to obtain her bachelor’s degree. She got married very young. Unfortunately, her husband decided that he didn’t want to be married anymore.
19:51	MELANIE: And discontinued all financial assistance to her and her three children. And left her homeless, cut off her phone, cut off all the utilities at the house. And she had to seek out a shelter. And stopped working and just lost everything and came to us for childcare so that she can, you know, get back on her feet. And she was a mother who was very, very, very motivated to do better.
20:18	MELANIE: And is now a coach, teaching special education teachers how to teach. So, she came a really, really long way. So, she kind of changed my perception of what homelessness is; and that it’s just sometimes through no fault of their own, what’s happening to them. VERONICA: I do think that for many of us moving through the world, we forget to maybe think about the person behind the panhandler.
20:52	VERONICA: As you said, not every person who is homeless or experiencing homelessness is going to be out there panhandling. But even the panhandler has a story has something that’s led them to that moment. They’re just people, too. MELANIE: Absolutely. VERONICA: Yeah. Alan, these people who are just people.
21:19	VERONICA: Also have some of these same problems that those of us who were housed have. ALAN: That’s correct. That’s correct. For example, a pedestrian who is homeless, he gets hit on the street. He’s not likely to have uninsured motorist coverage, which we talked about over and over again on this show. He doesn’t have medical coverage, which makes it difficult to represent that person in a catastrophic injury, yet that’s what we do.
21:46	ALAN: Sometimes the first time I will meet that person is actually at the hospital. And the person will have a ticket that somebody dropped off at the hospital that said perhaps he jaywalked. And we have a lot of work to do as attorneys. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, but we will canvas the area for witnesses. We will look for cameras from commercial establishments to see if we can find out what happened. And oftentimes, we do find out from the damage to the vehicle of the person that hit our client that this person had to be speeding.
22:22	ALAN: You’re not supposed to hit people in broad daylight. You’re supposed to see people in broad daylight. And the homeless person, if he’s knocked out and put into the ambulance and rushed to Grady Hospital- he can’t be interviewed about what happened. And so, we see it a lot when the driver just says he walked out in front of my car. VERONICA: Yeah, point the finger at that guy. And the police listened to the driver because the person who got hit is too hard to talk… or may not even be on the scene anymore.
22:50	ALAN: Or maybe he has all his belongings in a shopping cart. VERONICA: And maybe he’s not seen as a person? ALAN: Correct. VERONICA: Wow. And there’s another way that these cases come to you. ALAN: Absolutely. And we’ve seen this so many times over the years. We have people who have a catastrophic injury. Generally it’s a family and they’re barely getting along. We all know people that are living paycheck to paycheck. And if you break two arms or you have to have serious back surgery, you have a spinal injury.
23:22	ALAN: You have a head injury. You can’t work. And if you cut hair for a living or you happen to be a service provider… perhaps you’re waiting on tables, you can no longer support your family. And we don’t always know this upfront. The legal process sometimes does not move quickly. And over the year or two that we may be representing somebody, we’ll get a call. And we find out that they’re homeless. They’re living in their car.
23:51	ALAN: Look, their car has a roof and maybe they think that’s the best that they can do. But we will refer them to agencies that can help them. We will counsel them. I guess that’s why they call lawyers counselors as well because often there are psychiatric problems involved when you were a happy family and suddenly you can’t put food on the table. So, it’s really, really important to find out that your client is homeless. Sometimes we don’t find out right away.
24:20	ALAN: Sometimes they lose the support system that they had, you know. Maybe they moved down to Atlanta to live with an aunt. And that aunt died. And they just don’t have that support system anymore. So, when they had their accident, they’re having a really hard time, and now they need money really quickly, which creates another problem. You don’t want to settle their case, you need to tell the insurance company how serious their accident is. But the moment the insurance company finds out that they’re homeless, if that happens, that could affect the offer that the client gets on the case.
24:55	ALAN: And it shouldn’t, in a perfect world. Oftentimes we try these cases. And it’s very important to put your client on a pedestal so that you can present their best case. And it’s, believe me, it’s not hard when you have somebody who has permanent injuries who lost their job who can no longer support their children who can no longer pay for their insurance who no longer has medical insurance. It’s something that is vital that lawyers can do for people.
25:26	VERONICA: You can paint that picture large. It’s very, it’s compelling. Just listening to you. And we don’t even have a case in front of us right now. But how could a jury not be moved by something like that? Talking about support services, Melanie Gaston, from Atlanta Children’s Shelter. That’s where you all step in a lot of the time, I’m sure. MELANIE: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. We get referrals from all over. And we want to help the families become self-sufficient again.
25:53	MELANIE: And for us, that’s just providing pathways, building pathways for whatever they might need, finding- helping them find employment, going back to school, maybe getting some sort of training, some sort of internship with companies like LeasePlan, one of our partner organizations that have been very instrumental in turning our clients and actually hiring them on. And we provide all the wraparound services that they need for self-sufficiency. VERONICA: As the family services director, what are you doing there?
26:25	VERONICA: And how did you know that you were making a real difference? When did you first know that? That’s two questions I know. MELANIE: The difference. It’s just hearing the clients say thank you. And each year we have a big celebration called our achievers event where we celebrate clients who have done great throughout the year. Maybe they’re working again. They’ve attained permanent housing. And they just excelled quite a bit. So, hearing my name often, thanking me that -oh, thank you for your time.
26:55	MELANIE: Thank you for your attention. And thank you for all that you’ve done for me. That probably showed me that I’m making a difference. Yeah. VERONICA: What was it – there had to be some moment that touched you? Over these 22 years at ACS. MELANIE: I think one of the biggest, there were like many, many, many moments. More specifically is when a parent wants to give up, and we work in this endlessly to help them not think that way and to change their mindset and that they move forward and propel.
27:29	MELANIE: We had one lady who has always wanted to be a nurse, always. Since she walked in my door, that was what we put on her service plan. She’s like, I want to eventually be a nurse. And she started nursing school. And she just wanted to give up. She thought it was so difficult. She just couldn’t do it. She had three children. She was pregnant with her fourth child. And she just wanted to give up every single day. She came to my office every day where we had a conversation about not giving up. And now she’s a registered nurse and she’s working at, I think, Gwinnett Hospital.
28:00	MELANIE: So, it’s just seeing that we can change how they think- the mindset, which is probably the most difficult thing to change, not just with our clients, but with anybody. So just changing mindset and helping them to move forward and to let them know that they are somebody, they’re special, and they’re going to contribute to the world as a whole. And yeah. VERONICA: And the lack of walls doesn’t mean that you can’t contribute positively to the world.
28:28	VERONICA: Now, I’m curious, does Atlanta Children’s Shelter have some sort of legal aid department? Like, how do people experiencing homelessness – And I use these words on purpose because I learned not to say somebody’s homeless- Someone is experiencing homelessness. How do they find attorneys like Alan? MELANIE: So, one of the great things is that our former ED was actually a lawyer. So, she had a lot of connections. But we also use Atlanta Legal aid and Atlanta volunteer lawyers as well.
29:00	VERONICA: Yeah. One of the things that I thought was interesting is that Alan told me that a lot of times he doesn’t even know that somebody’s homeless. Like you talked about the… getting hit with a truck window or something, right? ALAN: That’s correct. One of the stories that I always like to tell is I represented a gentleman for a year and a half, and he came to pick up his check one day. And I asked him if he needed a ride back because he said he didn’t have a car. And he said, no, I walked. And he… I knew he came from downtown Atlanta and I said, well, how long did it take you?
29:31	ALAN: He said 6 hours. I said, well, you really started early in the morning. He said, I’ve walked that much every single day. It’s no different than any other day. Can I get you an Uber? Can I get you a car? No, thank you. VERONICA: Incredible. And do you have a hard time in that vein… contact… staying in touch with the client? Alan: Yes. That is a constant challenge of a homeless client. You don’t know where they’re going to be from one day to the next and often, we lose track of them.
30:01	ALAN: And because they don’t have a support system, there aren’t a lot of names they can give us for people that can always find them. VERONICA: We are here with Alan Saltzman of Montlick Injury Attorneys and Melanie Gaston of Atlanta Children’s Shelter. Melanie, thank you so much for being in the house with us today. Coming up, the Montlick closing argument. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick.
30:29	If you want to listen to our radio show live, you can hear it every Sunday, 8 a.m. on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. I’m your host Veronica Waters here with Alan Saltzman of Montlick Injury Attorneys and Melanie Gaston of Atlanta Children’s Shelter. You have been waiting for it all episode long. It is the Montlick closing argument. Alan Saltzman, take it away.
30:56	ALAN: I think the main thing that we have to think about when it comes to representing homeless people is that they have the same needs as our other clients and we need to make sure that we do everything we can to keep track of them, to help them. Sometimes they require some psychiatric services, other times they require just some tender loving care. It’s really important to remember that these are not people that became homeless voluntarily.
31:24	ALAN: They are generally people who found themselves in a homeless situation and it’s important because we want to do everything that we can to give them the same ability to win their case as anybody else. VERONICA: So, Melanie, how can those who are listening and watching actually step in to help the gang at Atlanta Children’s Shelter.
31:49	MELANIE: So, one thing you can help us do is change the perception of what homelessness is and spread the word that it is not what most think or what you see on television. It’s actually families that just need a helping hand and will benefit our entire community. Another is just… you can donate, monetarily, of course, and you can volunteer. We always need folks in our classrooms. We need folks helping in development at events that we might have, our upcoming event is our women’s luncheon.
32:22	MELANIE: And then we have a big holiday event where we need a ton of volunteers where we put on a Christmas event and we invite families from all over Atlanta. I think this year we invited over 300 families that we provided Christmas for. So that’s a biggie. VERONICA: That’s amazing. 300 families, yeah. That’s beautiful. I know my new friend Nia has already filled out the form on the website because she was so excited to learn about Atlanta Children’s Shelter that she started filling out her volunteer form already.
32:54	VERONICA: So, look for Nia when she comes to. And lastly, how do people contact Atlanta Children’s Shelter if they need you. MELANIE: So, we’re on all your media platforms. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; but our website is www.ACSATL.org. VERONICA: ACSATL.org. Thank you so much, Melanie Gaston, for being in here with us on Lawyers in the House with Montlick. And Alan Saltzman, always lovely to have you sitting next to me in the chairs.
33:24	VERONICA: I’m your host, Veronica Waters, and ask yourselves who are we as human beings if we ignore the sufferings of others. We’ll see you next time on Lawyers in the House with Montlick. If you’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick, catch us live every Sunday, 8 a.m. on 95.5 WSB.

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