ATLANTA — The pandemic has created an unprecedented need in many of our communities. Over the past year, 11Alive has shared the stories of unemployment and worries over rents and mortgages as part of the losses due to COVID-19.
Holly Jackson is someone who knows how it feels to be without a home and without hope, and she's using her experience to bolster others who are suffering.
"We bring essential items," Jackson explained to 11Alive. "We put them on fences so people are able to come out with no judgment or no stigma.
With little necessities like toothpaste and deodorant, Jackson and her team create walls of love, a campaign she launched in Cleveland, Ohio in 2018.
"Walls of Love is a way for us to put love out into the community for people who are in need," she said.
The pop-up walls have made appearances in more than a dozen states before Jackson arrived at this corner of Edgewood Avenue in Atlanta.
"We've done 875 walls in a little over two years," Jackson said, dubbing the Edgewall 'Wall of Love' #875. "When I was homeless we didn't have anything like this at all..."
Jackson's mission is indeed rooted in her own time experiencing homelessness, a survivor of domestic violence. Her nonprofit formed to help those in similar circumstances, but as she explained, the pandemic has brought that mission to another level.
"There are a lot of people who are struggling," she said. "We ask people take what they need, leave what they don't need, and ay it forward in some fashion," she said of the newly created wall. "It could be a kind word, a nice gesture."
For Jackson, Walls of Love is a labor of love. Her gift of hope for those who need it.
"They're somebody's family member they're somebody's mother father, and you never know their situation," she said.
Learn more about Walls of Love and follow their work here.