We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Allison Martzolf. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Allison below.

Alright, Allison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

Friends in Tents & Community Outreach is a 503c nonprofit organization based out of Summit County, Ohio. Our physical building is located in Barberton, but we provide services to individuals experiencing hardship all over the county.

FIT’s mantra, “Get a friend in a tent! It not only changes their life, it changes yours!” is a testament to the organization’s mission and vision: To make the maximum positive effort in our community by sharing resources with lower income families and homeless communities and to be part of a world where no one goes hungry; a world where everyone attains the right to survival without judgment. Our hope is for all communities to be treated with respect and kindness and that every heart is full after being in contact with our outreach.

Though the name of the organization includes our friends in tents, you do not have to live in a tent to visit us. We welcome everyone, no ID required or questions asked, to stop by, enjoy a hot meal, “shop” in our boutique for clothes, books, toiletries, supplies, etc., and enjoy the camaraderie and fellowship of our volunteers and other patrons.

True to its roots, FIT continues their boots on the ground mobile outreach each month in Akron, bringing hot meals and supplies to those living outside. These relationships have evolved over time and are key to the success of FIT. Individuals are met where they are at, not where society expects them to be. FIT prides itself on being an organization that is in it for the long haul. We help the homeless, those addicted to drugs, those suffering mentally or physically, pregnant women, the disabled and downtrodden, those recovering from significant trauma, those experiencing abuse, etc.

We don’t judge. You will never meet a more dedicated, caring, and empathetic group of volunteers. We all come from very different walks of life – educators, retired social workers, ex-addicts, people in active recovery, homeless folks, farmers, entrepreneurs, nurses, veterinarians, pastors, etc. Though we all are in it for different reasons, we are all in it to win it – win at making the lives of everyone we meet just a little bit better in whatever way we can.

A moment that changed the trajectory of our organization was when we met Crystal. She was many months pregnant, homeless, and actively using methamphetamine. She was not feeling well, and after our volunteer who is also a nurse did a little triage, it was determined that Crystal needed to be seen at the local hospital. Upon being admitted to the hospital, it was determined that Crystal had a kidney stone, but her baby looked pretty good on the ultrasound even though she had not had any prenatal care up to this point in her pregnancy.

After a couple of hours in the hospital, Crystal was told that she would be discharged with a prescription for her kidney stone. Our concern was for both Crystal and her unborn child, but Crystal was told that she could not stay as she was not on enough meth. We were absolutely stunned and appalled. I sat in the parking lot calling anyone and everyone I could find online that could maybe offer some help. We found that on a Sunday afternoon, the best answer we could get was to call back Monday during regular business hours.

That was THE moment – the moment where we decided to take a pause in some other ventures and work to put together resources that could be accessed any day of the week, at any time – day or night. We became driven to network with the “right” people and what evolved is something I am so incredibly proud of. This defining moment in my FIT career has allowed us to help so many more vulnerable people because we now have the contacts who have contacts who have contacts to help us successfully get the right services into the hands of our friends.

So what happened to Crystal and her unborn baby? Well, we left the hospital and returned her to her bench at the tent area where she had been staying. It nearly broke our hearts to do this but we had exhausted all of our Sunday options. About a month later, Crystal went into labor outside, EMS arrived, and her and her beautiful baby boy are in the final phases of being reunified through the Summit County Family Reunification through Recovery Court. We have never stopped or paused our journey with Crystal. She has come so far over the last year. Were there stumbling blocks along the way? Yep. Were there celebrations along the way? Yep. We promised Crystal that we were not going away or leaving her behind and we have kept our promise because that’s who we are – at the core of every single FIT interaction is love, understanding, and empathy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Friends in Tents (FIT) & Community Outreach, a 501c3 non-profit organization, was founded in 2019 and calls 594 Fifth Street NE in Barberton home. FIT began in the office where Christina Patterson and Meggan Rafferty worked. Beginning with a small coat collection to donate to Akron’s homeless, things took off from there. Friends and family began to donate items to be taken to the homeless, Meggan and Chris began preparing hot meals in the back of their office and dropping them off to camps after work, and the mobile outreach directly into the camps continued weekly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harry Patterson, Chris’ husband, and dubbed “The Mingler” for his love of talking and really getting to know our friends, also prides himself on helping one of our most vulnerable groups of homeless individuals, females. When Harry encounters a female he has never met before, whether it is in a camp or a bando or just out on the streets, he always privately tells them that if they are in a situation that they feel unsafe in, he will personally walk them out, take them to safety, the police department, a rehabilitation center, the hospital, or wherever else they would like to go on their own free will, away from men who are keeping them from living the life they want to live.

What problems don’t we solve for our friends would be most accurate! The phone calls, emails, social media messages, in-person interactions, etc. never end! What sets us apart from others is that we care deeply, longterm, and even when our friends find themselves in times of darkness and despair. We don’t give up on people. We are not a one and done. We tell people they are stuck with us whether they like it or not! We follow-up. We make the phone calls again and again and again when our friends cannot advocate for themselves. This is what we are most proud of – tenacity pays off and we have been able to help so many people because of this.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our reputation precedes us! We have worked so hard to expand FIT and over the last year and a half our social media presence has allowed us to really take off. Word of mouth from donors and volunteers, people visiting the building, people reaching out for help with services, etc. have really paved the way for FIT to become as successful as it has. We are busy all of the time! While the physical building itself is busy, the behind the scenes work is even busier! We pride ourselves on working effectively and authentically with people. We are a small, but mighty group and people like us! We are fun to be around, we are all very driven, and we all want to help others as much as possible.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

None of us have really been formally trained in this field, but our passion is what drives us to be as successful as we have been. With so many varying backgrounds, our volunteers are teachers, students, farmers, retired folks, bus drivers, insurance salespeople, nurses, rich, poor, old, young, middle-aged, homeless, etc. Our varied backgrounds make us the best problem-solvers there are as we all have such diverse perspectives on any given situation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.friendsintents.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Friendsintents
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/friendsintents
• Other: [email protected]://www.tiktok.com/@localgivers