DIOCESAN NEWS
02/09/07
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Ten churches combine efforts to help
      AMORY — St. Helen Catholic Church in Amory has been working with their Ministerial Alliance to see how they might better coordinate responding to those in need who come to each of the denomination’s door.
      Sister Florita Rodman CDP, St. Helen’s resident pastoral minister, has been part of 10-church planning group. After years of addressing the issue, a grand opening ceremony was held Jan. 26 for Amory’s HOPE Community Resource Center, located in a small office in       Amory’s downtown. HOPE stands for “Helping Other People Everyday.”
The centralized site is easily accessible to people with unmet needs seeking help. The center is open from 9 a.m. - noon on Mondays and Fridays and from 2-5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
      Sister Donna Gunn from Catholic Charities Parish Social Ministry Office, attended the opening and said she feels this may be a concept other parishes might wish to develop with their local Ministerial Alliances.
      The 10-partnering churches contributed funds and volunteers to form the center that serves as the starting place for people needing help in North Monroe County.
      According to the center’s director, Doris Gathings, “Since the center opened in late November, we have already served the needs of 122 clients who have come to us for help. Mainly what I’m seeing are people coming here for help with their utility and rent bills.
      “Most of them cannot pay their bills for three general reasons — either poor money management skills, job lay-offs, or health issues,” Gathings said.
      The HOPE Community Resource Center serves as a clearing house which can direct these people to the proper agency or to job skill training to help them. “We want to work on long-term solutions,” Gathings said.
      While the local churches contribute funds which can be given to the needy coming for assistance, the real intent of the center is to be much more than a stop for financial assistance, organizers said.
      It is hoped, they said, “those who come for help can be led to the most appropriate place which can help them find longer term solutions than merely band-aiding their present situation with a one time utility or rent payment.”
Speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Rev. Allen Simpson of Amory’s First Baptist Church, president of the center’s board of directors, said the Amory Ministerial Association for a long time had been looking for a way to better help people, to coordinate their efforts.       “A lot of people go from church to church for help,” he said. “We needed something long term to help them.”
      After talking to the Gilmore Foundation about the desire to have such a center in Amory, the Gilmore Foundation awarded a grant of over $102,000 to the effort, enabling the center to have a full-time paid director. Each week volunteers from local churches also help at the center with filling out registration forms and other tasks.
      Gathings helps them identify their needs, counsels them, and helps them plan a course of action for what they can realistically do to help themselves. She becomes their liaison to the proper agency that can most help them.
      So far, she has signed up 15 or 16 clients for GED classes. A budgeting class is being planned for some of them to attend in February. Gathings said some people need to learn more about how to budget the money they have; while others would do well to improve their educational level so that they can get a job and support themselves.
      Most of the clients thus far are walk-ins, but churches are beginning to refer people to the center. The center is a non-profit organization which, though affiliated with no one specific religious denomination, is clearly faith based.
      “We believe this is just a humble beginning for something that will grow,” Rev. Simpson said. “We believe that help should be very practical, but we want to give them hope, too. We want to let them know that our hope is Jesus Christ.”

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