Transforming lives

Summit County’s only low-barrier shelter for homeless women and children is throwing its biggest event of the year—the 20th annual State of the Shelter Breakfast, on Tuesday, May 19.

ACCESS (Akron Citizens Coalition for Emergency Shelter and Services) has fought to end homelessness for women and children since 1984.

“Our annual community event grows each year. In 2025 we hosted 550 people,” says Director of Development Brianne Neal. “This year we’ve moved it to the John S. Knight Center to accommodate the crowd of 650. It’s all about empowerment and high energy, a celebration of the achievements from 2025, and examination of where we are going forward. Movers and shakers enjoy the networking portion of the morning, as well as our interesting and insightful speakers.”

Brianne says they are thrilled to welcome keynote speaker Donald Whitehead Jr., who is executive director for the National Coalition for the Homeless.

“I’ve seen him speak. He’s inspiring,” she says, noting that Donald won an Emmy Award for the film Open the Sky, which depicted the hidden struggles of homelessness, a condition he personally experienced before becoming an advocate. “Another special treat is our emcee, spoken word artist, community development advocate and motivational speaker Tierra Kahli.”

Honoring Annual Award Winners

Two awards will be bestowed. Alice Scott will be presented the Empowered Woman Award. She entered ACCESS in 2023, fleeing domestic violence and coping with the murder of her son and loss of her belongings in a house fire. After leaving, she moved into permanent housing and is now employed. Two years later, her children, nephews and grandson are now living together under one roof and doing well.

Dr. Deborah Plate will be presented the Community Excellence Award. “As head of Family Medicine at Cleveland Clinic/Akron General, she will speak about how she supported getting our healthcare clinic up and running, which is so important to the families we serve,” says Brianne.

Staffed by healthcare practitioners from the hospital, the on-site clinic provides general and acute care, so moms don’t need to worry about copays or traveling to a doctor to have their children seen. Dr. Plate leads and codeveloped the Chick Chat program, an interactive health education curriculum for shelter residents.

A Look Back, Forward

“Attendees will hear about the stories behind the positive changes we are making to transform people’s lives,” says Brianne. “There are many metrics we are proud of achieving. Probably the most important is that we help transition 70% of our women to permanent housing, whereas the national average is 32.5%.”

She explains that with the rise in homelessness the need is greater than ever, and there’s currently a waitlist of more than 100 women and their children.

“In 2025, we served 139 women and 174 children, surrounding them with care programs to address their physical, mental and emotional needs,” says Brianne.



If you cannot attend the breakfast event, you can help support the cause with an online donation. In addition to much-needed donations, she mentions they are always on the lookout for volunteers to help serve meals, maintain the shelter, work the front desk and watch the children.

ACCESS is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. 

ACCESS Shelter

230 W. Market Street, Akron 

330-376-0997 

ACCESS-Shelter.org