HAMILTON, Ohio — A local church pastor is trying something different to help anyone who’s struggling. 

He started a new program that has to do with your birth certificate and social security. 


What You Need To Know

  • Pastor Aaron Simpson says he had a rough childhood filled with drugs but turned his life around after he got into ministry 

  • Simpson opened a church in his hometown neighborhood in Hamilton 

  • He said the church has been cutting back to afford a program that foots the bill for new birth certificates and social security cards for anyone who needs it

Walking down Hensley Street in Hamilton brings back memories of Aaron Simpson.

He said crime and drugs were all he knew. Years later, he said he found ministry and everything changed.

“I was able to leave that life behind,” said Simpson. 

He started pastoring a church in the middle of that same neighborhood and started a different way to help people who were once like him. 

“I was really out there, I was on crystal meth and out running the streets, running amuck thinking people were out to kill me," said Gary Ridley, who is in drug treatment and recovering. 

Fresh out of jail for drugs, Ridley said he’s changed. He’s off drugs, but he said it’s been a struggle after his birth certificate and social security card were stolen. 

“Without them documents and without an ID, I can’t even go to work, and I’m really lookin' forward to going back to work," said Ridley. 

Ridley came to Freedom House Ministries Church in Hamilton. It's Pastor Simpson’s church where he’s paying for new birth certificates and social security cards for anyone who needs it. 

“Instead of reproducing things like another meal time or another food pantry, those things are great but there’s a lot of those, so what isn’t happening, what isn’t being addressed and we saw those things as the main thing we can afford,” said Simpson. 

So far, he said they’ve helped hundreds get documents to help turn their life around in that same neighborhood where his life changed. 

“it’s us wanting to love people where they are and walk alongside them,” said Simpson. 

For more information about the program through Freedom House Ministries Church, click here