photo by Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph Alberto Sustaita hangs lights on a large wreath in Christmas decoration display at the The Store at Cornerstone in Tyler Wednesday Nov. 5, 2014. East Texas Cornerstone Assistance Network provides services to their clients such as rent assistance, vouchers for clothing, assistance finding jobs and counseling.

In almost two years of existence, the East Texas Cornerstone Assistance Network has changed lives through its work, and executive director Scott Harrison has the stories to prove it.

For example, a woman received a temporary job at the nonprofit’s store and could afford to take care of herself.

A man was able to provide Christmas for his family by purchasing items from The Store at Cornerstone.

A young man who had offered to drop out of school and take care of his mother who was temporarily unemployed didn’t have to because Cornerstone helped her get back on her feet.

These are just a few of the ways the agency has affected East Texans since opening its doors in March 2013.

“We are able to work with those people who, with some help, can move out of or stay out of poverty,” said Harrison, whose background includes serving as a Baptist pastor for 35 years and as programs director at People Attempting to Help (PATH).

“The welfare system of handouts has never worked. So we’re giving people the opportunity to work to maintain their dignity and transform their own life.”

 

Assisting people 

Cornerstone’s home is at 200 N. Beckham Ave. in what was once was a church, First Assembly of God, and most recently served as the Green Acres Baptist Church Outreach Center.

When Cornerstone opened as a nonprofit, Harrison took over operations and started the program with a vision of treating people in poverty with dignity and empowering them to make changes in their lives. He modeled the nonprofit after the Cornerstone Assistance Network in Fort Worth.

Cornerstone’s mission is to partner “in Christian love, with churches, businesses and other nonprofit agencies to assist people in poverty with life transformation.”

The nonprofit has seven full-time employees and a few part-time. These include a caseworker and jobs coordinator.

Excluding the people who shop at The Store at Cornerstone, the nonprofit serves very few actual clients — and that is intentional.

They typically see three or four clients a day and up to 20 a week, Harrison said. They sit down with each client and talk about what they can do together to keep that person out of poverty.

The people Cornerstone is seeking to help have to want change and be willing to work for it.

“For everything we do for them, we ask them to do something for themselves,” Harrison said.

The operation differs from other nonprofits in that a person can’t walk in off the street and be helped as a client. They have to be referred to the program by another agency, church or individual.

The referral process seeks to ensure two things: commitment on the part of the client and support on the part of the person or agency doing the referring.

In this way, that person in need has multiple people walking with them on the journey to transform their life, Harrison said.

The services Cornerstone will provide directly or indirectly include clothing and furniture, job training and job search assistance, rent assistance and counseling.

There is no set time limit for how long Cornerstone will help someone. Harrison said they’ve been working with one client for well over a year.

 

Changed lives 

Martha Nevarez, 40, of Tyler is one of the people who has benefitted from Cornerstone. Ms. Nevarez had made a living cleaning houses for 14 years, but gradually lost her client base when people moved away.

A family situation also created some challenges and left her a single parent and struggling to pay for housing.

Cornerstone helped her pay for rent and provided her with a job in The Store, which she said she is happy to do.

“A lot of people here helped me a lot,” said Ms. Nevarez.

Tyler resident Albert Sustaita found Cornerstone after hitting a low point because of drug addiction.

Sustaita, 37, got a DWI and found himself sitting at home with nothing but time on his hands. That’s when he started messing up, he said.

His drug addiction led to a divorce last year and only supervised visits with his kids. He also was staying at The Salvation Army.

In November, though, he met Cornerstone’s former jobs coordinator and through connections made with people at the Andrews Center and faith-based recovery programs he started on the road to recovery.

Sustaita said Cornerstone provided him with a temporary job as a maintenance worker and assisted him with getting clothes and food.

“I mean they have just really been tremendous,” he said. “I actually try to help them now also.”

Sustaita now works as a commercial truck driver. He also has received back his visitation with his kids and is planning to fight for custody of them.

Each week he attends two faith-based recovery programs and his desire is to help others on the road to recovery just as he has been helped.

“I just want to be able to help people like I was helped, let people know that God can do anything for anyone if you let him,” he said.

 

Meeting needs

In addition to the services offered to clients, the nonprofit also operates The Store at Cornerstone, which is open six days a week to the general public.

It features more than 13,000 clothing items as well as shoes, furniture, appliances, books and more.

With the exception of a special area for high-end items, all of the clothes on the floor are priced at $2 for tops, blouses and shirts; $4 for pants, dresses and jeans; and $3 and up for shoes, purses and hats. Three times a year, all of the clothes are priced at $1. New school clothes and uniforms also are sold there, but prices differ for those.

The Christmas store is being set up now so people can buy holiday decorations.

The facility also includes a health-department approved kitchen, which is used for the Cornerstone Caf￩ ministry. The caf￩ sells preassembled meals made with fresh ingredients. The meals are ready to be picked up, cooked and served. The family size feeds up to four adults and the grande size feeds up to 10.

These enterprises — the store and caf￩ — help fund the nonprofit, as do grants and contributions from churches and individuals.

Harrison said some of his ideas for the future include adding a transportation program, a credit union, a mechanic shop and an appliance repair store.

“We want to keep meeting needs and we will grow in whatever direction we see the greatest needs,” he said.