Lowndes Associated Ministries to People, Inc. (LAMP) was founded in the year 1985 by a small group of visionary individuals and their churches. These supporters created a program that would allow for monitoring and control of local assistance dollars to ensure that only the truly needy were served. Assistance was to be rendered in the following areas: rent, utilities, transportation, food, clothing, and other emergency needs.

As time progressed Valdosta grew, the needy population grew, and LAMP grew. This growth, though dictated by the needs of community, was inconsistent with and more rapid than the growth of the LAMP budget. This disproportionate ratio of growth to money presented LAMP with many new challenges. As a result, alternative funding streams were sought to serve as a supplement to the community dollars already present. The result was the implementation of grant programs.

These new, grant programs extended and improved LAMP’s ability to serve the needy in Lowndes County, thus bringing us to where we are today.

Currently, LAMP serves approximately 11,000 individuals per year through its many and diverse programs.

The Homeless Programs provide a myriad of services to the rapidly growing homeless population in the Valdosta area. First and foremost, is the provision of emergency shelter and supportive housing for 75 non-victimized, men, women, and children. Secondly, LAMP has structured its programming to provide end-to-end support for its clients. Not only do we provide the shelter, we provide the assistance needed to return our clients to self-sufficiency. A brief and non-exhaustive list of available programs would include: basic literacy training, English as a Second Language courses, GED classes, employment skills training, college placement assistance, employment assistance, resume construction, point-of-contact services (mail, phone, email, voicemail), document acquisition assistance, intensive case management, and many others.

The Health Care program provides assistance to individuals who have no access to eye care, dental care, or prescription medicines through traditional channels. Specifically, it targets those individuals who would have to pay cash for services. The ultimate goal of the program is to not only help with the immediate need, but also to ensure access to services for the individual in the future. A majority of the clients that we assist are referred to alternative programs which enable the client to personally acquire services. This means that LAMP has effectively reduced the community’s liability. Each year the program helps approximately 1000 county residents.

The Emergency Assistance program provides a “hand-up” to the suffering. Once we determine that an individual’s need is valid and short-lived, we will assist with rent payments, utility payments, transportation issues, food, clothing, and other emergency needs. In short, LAMP will not serve as a subsidy, but rather as an aide in an emergency situation. The same philosophical principles upon which LAMP was founded decades ago are still prevalent today.

Perhaps, the most important and most easily overlooked component of LAMP is its ability to effectively control and steward the community dollars it receives. In specific detail, for every one dollar donated, LAMP provides four more dollars of service. Also, LAMP has a twenty-plus year old database of assistance records which allows us to govern and police those individuals who would abuse the generosity of the community, its people, its agencies, and its churches. We can, with ever-increasing accuracy, ensure that services are rendered to those who truly have a legitimate need. This is an invaluable service which LAMP is capable of providing because of its networked relationships with area givers.

As Valdosta and Lowndes County embark on the paths laid before them, new needs will arise and LAMP will be here to provide its expert and professional service. It is imperative however, that LAMP be appropriately and adequately prepared. Thus, we actively solicit your assistance in perpetuating an invaluable community service.

Thank you very much for the moral and financial support that you have so graciously provided and will continue.

Cordially,

Heath Strickland