Lydia’s Place founder April Farlow sits in the organization’s office, located at 1260 Greensboro Hwy. Suite 210, Watkinsville, Ga. on Aug. 25, 2025. Farlow founded the organization in 2017 out of a want to help those aging out of the foster care system. “I wanted to serve,” Farlow said. “I found that there really wasn’t another nonprofit that was meeting this need, and so my goals were to help house the kids and help give them the chance in life that I really felt like they deserved from the very beginning, and I feel like we’re doing that now.” Photo by Maypop Wren
Since nonprofit organization Lydia’s Place was founded by motivational speaker April Farlow in 2017, it has grown into a program fully committed to meeting the needs of those aging out of the foster care system.
Local motivational speaker April Farlow stands in front of a room of foster care youth in 2009, at a conference she’s been called to speak at through a Dale Carnegie course.
She gives her talk, speaking of the future and self-improvement, a roomful of students staring back at her. And then the students begin to talk, sharing hopes of college and careers, one of them wanting to go to Harvard University, an ambition that Farlow can’t help but be captivated by.
The front sign of Lydia’s Place is shown at 1260 Greensboro Hwy. Suite 210, Watkinsville, Ga. on Aug. 25, 2025. Since its founding in 2017, the organization has grown to include three primary programs to provide various levels of support to those aging out of the foster care system, including Elevate, which helps teach students skills needed to live independently. “And elevate is learning basic life skills and independent skills, so that we’re not just educating a student in college, but also we’re teaching them how they can make it on their own, doing things like driving and laundry and budgeting,” Lydia’s Place founder April Farlow said. “So, we’re taking all of those things so that when someone exits our program, we truly believe we’ve given them the tools to live on their own.” Photo by Maypop Wren
However, it isn’t until years later when Farlow is picking up her then-5-year-old daughter from Sunday School that she suddenly sees those same faces echoed back at her and realizes she needs to help.
“All the kids were peeking over the little gate, waiting on their parents, and it was like the faces of all the kids I had been speaking to hit me. And I was like, ‘Who’s coming?’” Farlow said. “‘(Is there someone coming) who knows their allergies and their birthday?’ And it just began to bother me, so I think being a mom was what really prompted me to do something.”
From there, in 2015, the idea of Lydia’s Place, a nonprofit committed to housing and teaching life skills to those between the ages of 17 and 24-years-old, who have aged out of the foster care system or experienced homelessness, was born.
Farlow spent three years searching for tangible ways to help those in the foster care system through volunteer work with nonprofits, but struggled to find any due to the strict protections the Division of Family and Child Services has for those in their care. So, in 2015, she committed to starting her own nonprofit.
“I wanted to help people who needed a hand up and not a handout,” Farlow said. “It’s very important to me to find people who were genuinely trying to make it on their own and were running into a hard time, and I felt like kids aging out of foster care have been dealt a really hard hand.”
Farlow gathered other women who wanted to help and, in 2017, Lydia’s Place was established as a nonprofit, the name a testament to Farlow’s great-grandmother, who had built houses on her property for people to live in during the Great Depression, only asking them to pay what they could.
Out of Farlow’s garage and eventually a storage unit, volunteers put together boxes of necessities for college students without the help of a family to get the supplies they need, a program that became known as Provisions of Hope.
Balancing a family, a full-time job and the needs of her community, Farlow served as the main point of contact for those who needed housing and resources.
“It’s very important to me to find people who were genuinely trying to make it on their own and were running into a hard time, and I felt like kids aging out of foster care have been dealt a really hard hand.”
– April Farlow,
Lydia’s Place founder
Lydia’s Place founder and board member April Farlow stands with Social Worker Allyson Norris at the organization’s office, located at 1260 Greensboro Hwy Suite 210, Watkinsville, Ga. on Aug. 25, 2025 After she founded the organization with the help of volunteers in 2017, Farlow singehandedly managed Lydia’s Place until staff members began to be hired in 2022. “When we started, the only phone number we had was my cell phone. So at two in the morning, if one of the kids we were serving had a problem, it was coming straight to my cell phone,” Farlow said. “I was (also) making every decision. So, (deciding) if we were going to accept someone into our program, but I was also the one who wanted to kick someone out of our housing if they were getting removed.” Photo by Maypop Wren
It wasn’t until January of 2022 that Lydia’s Place began hiring employees, the second of which was Social Worker Allyson Norris. Since she began working at the organization, Norris has seen the commitment Farlow carries for the students the organization has served.
“For about four years, (Lydia’s Place) was volunteer-run, and the only reason that happened was because of April. She was told ‘No’ more times than you can imagine,” Norris said. “But, she was persistent, and she learned. She went at it with a humble heart to be able to learn from other organizations and people in the community, and kept at it.”
An infographic shows the three programs Lydia’s Place offers to the young adults the organization helps. Graphic by Lea D’Angelo
Lydia’s Place has also expanded to include more programs. Provisions of Hope now includes a Boutique located in the nonprofit’s headquarters where participants can shop for clothes and other necessities. Two other programs were also developed: Elevate, which offers more independent housing and teaches life skills before young adults transition to Step Down, where there’s still support but with more independence.
“We have a student who lived in our housing for about three years, which is a long time to be in our housing, but he just needed a little bit of extra help to become independent,” Farlow said. “I just heard from him today that he has now gone into our Step Down program. He has gotten his driver’s license and a full-time job. He is doing what we want all of our kids to do, and that’s to become independent adults.”
Lydia’s Place also helps in other ways, partnering with schools and other community organizations in the Athens area to support those in need of help, a collaboration that Clarke County School District School Social Worker Dy’Nazha Hughes has found beneficial.
“The students that I know are there, (Lydia’s Place) helps them get jobs. Volunteers drive them to job interviews, they come pick them up from school and take them to doctor’s appointments if they need it,” Hughes said. “So, they really do play that role of helping a kid have a village of their own.”
A timeline shows notable events in the founding of local nonprofit organization Lydia’s Place. Timeline by Lea D’Angelo
Now, in their eighth official year, 10 years after the idea was formed, Farlow looks back at the journey she’s had and the faces of the kids she’s helped, many of whom have pictures hanging up in the organization’s new building, located at 1260 Greensboro Hwy., Suite 210, Watkinsville, Ga..
“We’ve learned that it takes time to build trust,” Farlow said. “A lot of our students don’t fit into a family well because they’ve been burned by the people were supposed to love them the most, and so while we do have housing and we have a housing liaison who lives near them, we’re not asking them to fit into a family setup, and for many of them, that feels a lot safer than trying to recreate what they didn’t have in the first place or what hurt them.”
