Fan Male: Providing Housing For HIV/AIDS Families

Charles Mayfield's got milk - and a devotion to Jerusalem House.

by Carol Carter

September 5, 2008

C harles Mayfield's got milk.

His family operates Mayfield Dairy Farms, based in Athens, Tenn. His dad is Scottie, the one who wears the bow tie in Mayfield TV commercials. 

So, the idea of taking the children who live at Atlanta's Jerusalem House up to Tennessee came easily to Charles Mayfield. During his second year serving on the board of the organization that provides permanent housing for homeless Atlantans affected by HIV/AIDS, Mayfield heard the program director say that she wanted to organize a summer trip for the kids.

Mayfield stepped in and offered a tour of the Tennessee plant and farm. "I had my dad take them on the dairy tour, which was really cool, and then we took them to the calf barn," he says. "And we get off the bus, and it smells like a farm and it looks like a farm and it is a farm, and these kids were just going nuts.

"You can hold your two fingers out - and they're a little salty and about the size of a teat on a cow - and the calves will suck your fingers," Mayfield says. "It's the cutest thing. I'm sitting there watching that, and it hit me - here's this kid giggling and getting to see what a cow looks like and smells like - and that child was living on the streets of Atlanta.

"For me, it was that moment where I thought, 'These kids may not have had going to a farm on their top 10 list, but it's a memory they can cherish, and I was able to help them do that,'" he says. "I can't even imagine what it's like to be 10 years old or 12 years old or 6 years old and living on the streets of Atlanta."

Vice president and co-founder of Chappell, Mayfield & Associates, an Atlanta financial services firm, Mayfield had planned to go back and work in the family business after graduating from Georgia Tech in 1997. But he went to work for Prudential Financial instead, and, he says, "fell in love with it, so I stuck with it."

He joined the board of Jerusalem House in 2002 after floundering a bit, as he sought a philanthropic cause. Prudential had a community outreach arm. Mayfield went to a meeting where they passed around a sign-up sheet.

He told the person in charge of the outreach program to find three Atlanta charities where he could interview and consider volunteering.

His requirements were that the charities be local and that they involve kids. He never made it to the third interview. "Jerusalem House was my second interview, and they asked me to be on the board. I thought that was a really great opportunity to get some hands-on experience in the upper hierarchy of a philanthropic organization, so I agreed."

Right away, he became co-chair of the Halloween Bash, the annual fund-raiser at Jerusalem House. Ultimately, he became president of the board, a position he held for three years. This year, he's back to chairing the Halloween Bash, so, Mayfield says, "I've come full circle."

During Mayfield's years at Jerusalem House, the organization erased a $300,000 deficit created by an accounting error and has balanced the budget ever since. Nearly three years ago, the board enacted a five-year strategic plan with a goal of increasing the number of units by as much as 300 percent.

Atlanta's largest provider of permanent housing for homeless people with HIV/AIDS, Jerusalem House has 23 private apartments for adult men and women; 12 apartments for single mothers and their children; and 32 apartments for individuals and families in which at least one member is infected with HIV/AIDS. Forty percent of the residents of Jerusalem House are children. 

In line with the five-year plan, Jerusalem House is about to double in size, meaning that it will have twice as many living spaces for residents. "We know the need is out there," Mayfield says. "Jerusalem House is a signature program nationally. People come to us to try and replicate what we do, and they have difficulty doing it. We really do a bang-up job."

Just one example is the resident who graduated from high school and got a college scholarship - half through the college she will attend and half paid by an anonymous donor.

"Here's this girl," Mayfield says, "that was living on the streets, and now she's going to college. To be able to play even a minor role in seeing something like that happen is just so fulfilling."