Category: Healing

Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Healing, Love, Philanthropy, Uncategorized

A Fresh Start

By Moses Malone

Sylvie Lawrence, a ShowerUp Volunteer, speaks about how the non-profit organization ShowerUp serves those that are unhoused or anyone that is in need of a helping hand. They provide mobile showers, hygiene kits, laundry, and personal care items. Their main goal is to spread hope and love to the community of Chattanooga Tennessee.

On a beautiful, chilly morning, amid the city sounds of traffic and train rumbles, laughter and cries of joy fill the streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee. These cheerful groups stand outside a mobile trailer that promises a hot, steamy shower for the unhoused and those who need a helping hand. On the side of the trailer, the word “ShowerUp” reads: a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing hope, love, and compassion to the Chattanooga community.

“ShowerUp, in my own words, is this non-profit that is there for other people…we want to evaluate the dignity that they [the unhoused] already have and let them know what they’re really worth,” said John Justin Lin, a ShowerUp Operational Manager.

ShowerUp’s journey began 10 years ago, when Paul and Rhonda Schmitz handed out sandwiches to the unhoused. They built relationships with people on the streets and realized that they could do more than provide meals. The couple asked themselves: What do people need most? The answer to that wasn’t money, food, or clothes; it was a regular shower. Since then, a mobile community built on compassion has expanded from Nashville, TN, to Chattanooga in June 2023.

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art, Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Farm Life, farming, Healing, horse, Music, Sports, Uncategorized, UTC

Rising Rock Radio Showcase 2025
Graphic by Kylee Boone

Rising Rock is excited to showcase some of our best audio stories from this past semester in a continued partnership with Scenic Roots.

Check out the individual audio stories here or listen to the entire showcase on WUTC

Continue reading “Rising Rock Radio Showcase 2025” →
Chattanooga, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Family, Healing, Health, Karate, Sports

The Seated Champion

Written by Zoie Denton

Joel Westbrook talks about his journey as a wheelchair athlete in martial arts and how his spina bifida doesn’t limit him. He is the first wheelchair athlete to join the U.S. Para-Karate National Team and became an inspiration for those with physical limitations to challenge themselves, so they can take the first steps towards greatness.

Greatness wears many faces. For 18-year-old martial artist Joel Westbrook, greatness is carved into every determined push of his wheels. As the first ever male wheelchair athlete selected for the U.S. Para-Karate National Team, he has become a living symbol that limitations don’t define a person. His journey is proof that true strength is not bound by the body, but by the fire that drives it forward.

Joel Westbrook releases a sharp kiai, a forceful, exclamatory shout in karate. This practice supposedly connected the mind and body, as he executed the final move in his kata. Tuesday, November 11, 2025. (Photo by Angelina Fraga.)

Westbrook was born with spina bifida, a condition that affects how the spine and nerves develop. He can walk short distances using braces and crutches, but his wheelchair is where he feels strongest and most comfortable. Despite the challenges he faces, he has never felt limited.

When Westbrook was around eight years old, he saw a television show with a character performing martial arts in a wheelchair. For most viewers, it was simply a character, but for Westbrook, he saw himself represented in a sport that had always seemed inaccessible. Under the guidance of his physical therapist, Westbrook and his family discovered Green’s Karate in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a dojo known for adapting karate for all students.

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art, Chattanooga, community, Diversity, Healing, Prison, Uncategorized

Barber’s Redemption

Written by Angelina Fraga

Bryan Slayton removes the barber cape after giving Malik a fresh cut. Malik was excited to look nice for his approaching birthday. Wednesday, April 9, 2025. photo by Angelina Fraga.

There’s no striped pole or hydraulic kick leather chair. No sign posted on a door pertaining to hours of operation or holidays off. It’s just Bryan Slayton and his barber tools laid out on his mobile cart, plugged into the city’s power outlet. Slayton’s “clients” sit on a chair pulled from a park table.  On a good day, you can see people lined up waiting for a new do, sometimes not so many. Regardless, he stays from 8 am until noon, waiting to make someone’s day.

Slayton is a Chattanooga barber making a difference for those less fortunate in the community. You can find Slayton at Miller Park every Wednesday with his clippers and barber tools set up at his side.  He gives haircuts to anyone in need, they just walk up to his improvised office and ask. 

Slayon grew up in Chattanooga’s West Side projects and got his first pair of second-hand clippers for Christmas from his uncle when he was just ten years old. He mastered his craft through trial and error, but in the beginning it was only a side hustle.

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, donate, Environment, Family, Food, Food Banks, Healing, Health, outdoors, Philanthropy, Sustainability

Table for All

Written by Alexis Carpenter

Katy Neusner steps in to help pack Sack Packs for children who may not have food at home to help sustain them through the weekend. Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Photo by Alexis Carpenter.

The warehouse lights flicker on as volunteers walk through the door and make their way to rows of stacked pallets and assembly lines. The scent of produce and cardboard boxes mingle in the humid atmosphere, and the sound of pop music fills the large warehouse. Volunteers begin to sort canned goods, bag fresh vegetables, and prepare boxes for distribution.

Yet, beneath this effort lies a growing crisis. The Chattanooga Area Food Bank, a lifeline for residents across 20 counties in Tennessee and Georgia, is dealing with significant funding cuts. A nationwide halt of $500 million in federal food aid, including the suspension of USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation funding, has resulted in the cancellation of multiple truckloads of food. These shipments are now absent from the food bank’s inventory, leaving bare shelves within the warehouse.

In the midst of the working warehouse is Katy Neusner, the Advocacy and Communications Coordinator of the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. As the organization works to bridge the gap left by the funding cuts, Neusner and her colleagues face a task of sustaining their mission amid dwindling resources.​

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Animals, art, Chattanooga, Chattanooga Audubon Society, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Dance, donate, Entertainment, Environment, Healing, Health, History, Immigration, K-Pop, Love, Music, outdoors, Philanthropy, Safety, Spelunking, Sports, Sustainability, teachers, UTC, women

Rising Rock Radio Showcase
Graphic by Kylee Boone

Rising Rock is excited to showcase some of our best audio stories from this past semester in a continued partnership with Scenic Roots.

Continue reading “Rising Rock Radio Showcase” →
art, Chattanooga, community, Daily Life, Family, Healing, Love, Music, women

A Window to the Soul

Video by Clara Paulson

Marcy Paulson, a Chattanooga-based musician, was born with Leber congenital amaurosis, a degenerative eye disorder. As a child, Marcy often encountered pity from peers and strangers; one friend even expressed her concerns that Marcy would never be able to fall in love. But Marcy proved she could hear the world more vividly than most could see it. Through music, she found true joy, her husband, and a lifelong passion.

Meet the Storyteller

Clara Paulson is a Junior Communication major attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with minors in Brock Scholars and Creative Writing. Clara has experience writing stories and working as an assistant Photo editor for the Echo, co-hosting a podcast on the Perch, and writing poems for the Sequoya Review. After graduation, her goal is to continue storytelling. She hopes to write—whether it’s with ink or light—the unheard stories of Chattanooga and beyond. If you want her to write your story, you can reach out to her at tnq894@mocs.utc.edu.

Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, Diversity, Family, Healing, History, Immigration, Love, Philanthropy, Safety, UTC

Still Here

Written by Connor Spelta

Olympia Garcia Lopez talks about her experience as a Guatemalan immigrant in Chattanooga and how she came to find La Paz.

For those building new lives in Chattanooga, the journey often begins with an organization like La Paz. Even at a time of rapidly shifting policy and funding changes, this organization isn’t going anywhere, and remains firmly committed to the people they serve.

La Paz is a Latino services non-profit organization with a stated goal of “empowering and engaging Chattanooga’s Latino population through advocacy, education, and inclusion.”

“From the very beginning we’ve encountered many Hispanic men coming to Chattanooga for work opportunities, and they started coming in with their families. The needs start changing from job opportunities or like documentation to other processes, more programs, more resources that they need for the whole family instead of just an individual” said Daniela Durán, the communication coordinator for La Paz.

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Animals, Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, donate, Family, Healing, Health, Hugs, Nurses, Safety

Medical Tails

Written by Addison Middleton

Elizabeth Olley, a VSCG Practice Manager, and Becky Howell, a VSCG Senior Nurse and Trainer, speak about their experience working for the Veterinary Care and Specialty Group in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

As a worried owner walks through the doors holding her trembling and sick dog, the receptionist is already calling the emergency team. ICU veterinarians begin their specialized care, blood work is rushed to the lab, and a surgeon is looking at scans planning the next steps for the pet; all services being done under the same roof in seamless coordination. 

This process is something very familiar to the Veterinary Care and Specialty Group (VCSG) in Chattanooga. With services such as emergency care, internal medicine, radiation oncology, surgery, rehabilitation and more, the mission of VCSG is to be a one stop shop for all pet needs no matter the time or lengths required. The treatments and equipment VCSG offer have allowed it to become one of the most advanced offices in America and a leading hub in the South Eastern area seeing around 10,000 – 12,000 pets every year, almost double compared to other vet offices. 

“What we’ve always tried to do with VCSG is give the convenience to owners so that people don’t have to take all that time off of work or so owners aren’t making thousands of appointments at 10 different hospitals trying to get the best care for their patient,” Liz Olley says. 

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Chattanooga, Chattanooga outreach, community, Daily Life, donate, Family, Healing, Hugs, Love, Religion, Safety, Uncategorized

Revolution of Redirection

Written by Connor Spelta

StreetWorks is an organization based in Chattanooga, Tennessee that helps the sexually exploited women of the city who are unhoused. They offer a home for the women to go to two days a week to rest, wash their clothes, shower, and eat.

A pair of thickly cushioned blue couches sit in the living room of a small house in Chattanooga. To the women who are familiar with the building and the organization it hosts, the couches are so much more than a comfy piece of furniture. 

On the four cushions, they can rest with the knowledge that they are safe. They know, at least for the time being, that they are free of the dangers they face outside of the Streetworks property. 

No men are allowed here, and no one enters the house without crossing paths with leadership team member Karen Brown.

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