Greater Good Collective in Fort Worth serves coffee and hope

The useful part

The combination thrift store and coffee shop employs people who have fallen on hard times. "There's so much more to the homeless community than people realize," Jessica Morgan said as she stocked clothing racks at her new job. "So shelter and housing isn't enough to create long-term sustainability and independence," Presbyterian Night Shelter Chief Growth and Strategic Initiatives Officer Barbara Clark-Galupi said.

How it works

• It's also critical for the economic empowerment, right?" The goal is to give people an opportunity to work for a better life.
• All of them were created by employees of Woodworks by UpSpire, another Presbyterian Night Shelter social enterprise business.
• "This is my opportunity to work in the system to help." The <a href="https://thegreatergoodcollective.org/" rel="...
• "Like, I didn't know this was where I was gonna end up, but I'm happy I ended up here," Morgan said.
• "Success for us looks like gainful employment as long as they want to be gainfully employed," Clark-Galupi said.

What to take from it

"It means so much to me because I've been homeless for 5 years." The Presbyterian Night Shelter runs the Greater Good Collective out of a building in Fort Worth donated by John David Moritz of Fort Worth, the Reilly Family Foundation of Aledo, and Mark Moore of Oklahoma City. "Without places like this, the ones that are lost out on the street aren't going to be able to get to the places they need to be," Morgan said.

Details worth keeping

Worth opened its doors this week for a soft opening. Some employees, like Morgan, live at the Presbyterian Night Shelter. Others have other barriers that make getting a job difficult.