By Paula Day

Estimates of how many homeless children and their families are in the Atlanta area vary, but no one debates that their plight is a little publicized story.

Ministries United for Service and Training (MUST) in Cobb County isn't waiting for the statistics. MUST opened a day shelter for homeless families in January called Day Break, and is now in the forefront of helping the children of these families register in Marietta and Cobb County schools.

MUST Center is a hodge-podge of buildings closed in by busy Cobb Parkway and small industrial businesses in Marietta. It's night shelter, Elizabeth Inn, is a converted church that includes MUST offices on the ground level at the back. Children play in a fenced-in grassy area with a sand box squeezed between another brick building and two mobile units.

Since Day Break opened, its director Tom Plamann has seen "a very substantial increase" in the number of homeless people with children. He also sees an increase in homeless people whose profile is new to shelters: those where the head of the family once held a white-collar job and single-parent families where the father is filling the parenting role alone. During the day the shelter is "home" for three to 10 children a week. At night they sleep in Elizabeth In, which has an area set aside for families.

Provisions of the McKinney Act of 1987 mandated that public schools provide an education for homeless children and earmarked funds to help with their education. MUST has arranged with Cobb County and Marietta school districts to waive for 30 days required documentation such as birth certificates and immunization records so that a child can be enrolled within three days after coming to the shelter. Most families disrupted by homelessness do not have the needed documents.

Day Break is just one of many services MST offers. Founded in 1972 as Methodists United in Service and Training, a part-time ministry operating a food pantry and summer camps for children, it now is an interfaith ministry with multifaceted services.

In addition to the emergency family shelter, MUST has a night shelter and soup kitchen which serves three meals a day. Staff offer job counseling and referrals, mental health counseling and transitional housing. A free health clinic operated by Cobb Human Services Coalition on the MUST premises includes a pharmacy, dental office and examination room.

St. Ann's parish in Marietta, in covenant with Sts. Peter and Paul Episcopal Church and the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection and Church of the Incarnation, contributed $2,500 each to implementing the dental office. Other Catholic churches in Cobb County helping the ministry include St. Joseph's which sponsors several food drives and collections annually. Transfiguration and Holy Family regularly man the night shelter. In Cherokee County, Our Lady of LaSalette parish has a collection once a month and provides turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas for the satellite MUST center there.

Nancy Morris, director of MUST, emphasizes the services grew from the ground up, initiated gradually as "people told us what they needed." There was no master plan and she credits the philosophy of listening first and then acting for allowing MUST to evolve and to offer comprehensive assistance.

MUST has opened centers in Cherokee County and the city of Smyrna. It has 20 paid staff members but some work part-time. More than 1,000 volunteers each year together contribute an average of 45 hours a week at the center.

"We couldn't do it without them," Ms. Morris said, adding, "MUST is unique. The staff people are here to help the volunteers do the job." Counting the estimated value of these services and donations, Ms. Morris said overhead expenses are less than seven percent of MUST's budget. MUST has 150 churches on its mailing list.

On a regular basis volunteers from Catholic parishes in the area man Elizabeth Inn, which is open seven nights a week. They prepare and serve the evening meal and monitor the premises during the night. Ms. Morris pointed out that based on information gathered from the Task Force for the Homeless, Elizabeth Inn is the only group shelter taking in everybody -- the mentally ill, whole families, single men and women. Routine drug tests and a Breathalyzer insure that the environment is drug free and Twelve-Step programs are offered within walking distance of the MUST facility.

"We're still inventing" ways to provide transitional housing for the homeless, Ms. Morris noted. After a limited stay at the shelter, those who meet basic requirements move into apartments. Leased for a month at a time, the rent is determined by a formula and is less than one third of the lessee's income.

Guests of Elizabeth Inn who are sick, disabled or single parents caring for young children may stay at Day Break during the day.

Homeless children hop from shelter to shelter, living unstable lives, Ms. Morris pointed out. Day Break offers a routine which includes nap time, tea time and play time for those too young to be in school.

A member of Christ the King Cathedral parish who is a regular volunteer at Day Break recounts the story of a little boy she met one morning in the office waiting for his mother.

"Why don't we play house?" she asked him. The child proceeded to put two chairs one in front of the other, not side by side or back to back. Then he placed toy dishes on the front chair and the two shared a make-believe meal. When they were finished he put the dishes away, curled up with a pillow on the back chair, said his prayers and pretended to go to sleep. It was then that the volunteer realized that the only "house" he knew was his mother's car.

MUST places a strong emphasis on getting school-age children in school. In addition to working with school authorities to implement the McKinney Act, it arranges for school bus stops, packs lunches and provides school supplies.

On one or two Saturdays a month MUST offers outside activities for the children. Visits to Fernbank museum, to a farm to select pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns, and season tickets to the Center for Puppetry Arts give them a variety of experiences.

In addition to the Loaves and Fishes kitchen which serves three meals daily seven days a week and is open to the community for lunch Monday through Friday, MUST operates a well-stocked pantry.

MUST's employment program is available to the community and offers services to prospective employers including drug screening, background checks, résumés and interviews. It keeps a record of job openings from employers in the fields of telemarketing and sales, construction, hospitality, clerical and trucking.

"We began offering this service in January," Ms. Morris said. "People who were placed in jobs are still working, an indication that we're doing something right. People who once stayed here are coming back to hire others. We started with a high turnover, but now there is more long-term employment."

Carole Allen is a psychiatric nurse employed full time by Cobb-Douglas Mental Health who works out of MUST's facilities.

"Cobb County has assigned me here because this is where we find the people who have the needs and are unable to get to agency offices," explained the member of St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Smyrna. "MUST is not a one-stop shop. All the volunteers are caring and take an holistic approach to helping people."