BY DEBBIE PAGE
Pam Navey, chair of the Iredell Homeless Collaborative and a community resource officer with the Statesville Police Department, began June’s meeting by reminding the community that in addition to the collaborative’s work with homeless, the group works with displaced or people in transitional situations to avoid them from becoming unhoused as well as community outreach.
Collaborative members are busy doing community events this summer to help build relationships and connections, especially with underprivileged children and adults.
HELPING KIDS AND FAMILIES
♦ Iredell-Statesville Schools Director of Community Engagement Marlene Scott shared a list of summer feeding programs (with locations and times) for children age 0 -18 at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SzLoyltbI2q9wrAEw9se9UnA8nhZ2ILmn40TRj0wA1s/edit?tab=t.0.
♦The Salvation Army Summer Kids Club (for ages 5-12) is every Thursday through July 31 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the organization’s location at 1361 Caldwell Street in Statesville. The club includes lunch and fun activities. Call 872-5623 for more information.
♦Nakayla Griffin, Statesville Police Department Community Resource Coordinator, said that the department’s community youth efforts are “booming.”
The SPD is sponsoring a morning summer camp at Christian Outreach from June 23 – 27.
“It’s just a week of power, week of impact, week of fun, week of learning, so we’re excited about that,” Griffin said.
The department is also having a “Bowling with a Cop” on July 24 at Pla Mor Lanes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Kids can also bowl free all summer long at Pla Mor Lanes if parents register them at www.kidsbowlfree.com/pw. They will receive certificates for two free games per day (or equivalent time) through August 30.
SPD is also having a Community Fun Day at Alex Cooper Park on July 10 starting at 11 a.m. and will have fun events in different community each Friday like “Cool Pops with a Cop.”
Five new SPD high school Student Ambassadors also began working at the department’s community service events in June and will continue through the end of the year.
♦ On July 12 Foundation of Hope Ministries is having its free community Fun Day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont (1001 Cochran Street).
The event will feature free food, drinks, and treats, water games, bounce houses, games, face-painting, music, arts and crafts, sensory station, and community resource information.
Other event partners include Grill 4 God, Statesville Police and Fire Departments, Iredell County Sheriff’s Office, Iredell County EMS, local nonprofits, churches, and community advocates.
UPCOMING EVENTS
♦ Fifth Street Ministries Christmas is July 19 at Statesville Montessori School (1012 Harmony Drive) from 2 to 6 p.m. The event features music, games, crafts, Santa photo, refreshments, and a silent auction (still taking donations and sponsors). The event is one Fifth Street’s major fundraisers.
Free tickets to the event are available at https://www.simpletix.com/e/christmas-in-july-tickets-217492?utm_source=qr.
♦ The Iredell Walk for Recovery (September 27 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the South Iredell High Performing Arts Center) is accepting vendor and sponsor applications, available at https://sites.google.com/view/iredellcountywalkforrecovery/. Contact kristin.daci@gmail.com for more information.
The free event to celebrate recovery from substance use or mental health issues is open to the community and offers free food, treats, music, kids’ activities and crafts, local performers, recovery speakers, community resources, free T-shirts to first 250 adults, drawings for prizes, and more.
HELPING THE HOMELESS POPULATION
♦ FOHM Executive Director Karen Kidd said that things with the local homeless population that they serve “are good and bad. We have new people coming in, people that have been here before that are now back, and a lot of no trespassing in the area, so just trying to navigate that.”
With recent frequent heavy rains, the nonprofit “has had to replace a lot of stuff, so it’s just been a challenge.”
♦ The Statesville Cove Church is serving over 200 hot meals every single week and giving away about 60 to 75 bags of food to individuals weekly.
“We have an area where they can come and sit, and we just mingle and break bread with them,” said Kidd. “It’s been growing week after week. A lot of new faces, a lot of families from different areas coming in. It’s just been a beautiful, beautiful thing.”
♦ Rob Harris of Restoration Road Ministry said his addiction recovery organization fed 267 displaced families where they reside. The nonprofit had its 3rd annual Binks Fun Run for Addiction Awareness boat run on June 6, one of the organization’s two largest annual fund raising events.
One hundred percent of proceeds goes directly to substance use recovery and awareness efforts.
The event is held in memory of Travis “Binks” Binkley, who died from a fentanyl overdose at age 23 in 2019. The run featured boats from all over the East Coast, raising $17,000 last year and an amazing $53,000 this year.
“It cost an average of $1,000 to get a person on the first step to recovery,” said Harris.
Last year’s proceeds helped them get a mother and her two children into housing. “She gets her keys June 28. We got her into recovery three years ago and have been walking along side with them from the beginning,” said Harris.
♦ The Salvation Army (1361 Caldwell Street in Statesville) is having a cooling station Monday through Thursday each week from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. as temperatures climb near 100 next week.
The organization is in need of volunteers, water, and snack items for the station. Donors can also purchase items to help from the Salvation Army Amazon wish list at https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/37VTRIG8MELWT.
To volunteer or for more information, call Monday through Thursday at 704- 872-5623.
♦ Sandy Tabor Gray, Peer Support Specialist/Substance Use Support Program Coordinator at The Christian Mission in Mooresville, said the organization is enjoying its new building.
“Come on down and see what we’re doing. We also have lots of meeting spaces that the community is starting to use to come in and do their meetings and take advantage of tours.”
Tabor-Gray has tents, sleeping bags, and food boxes for those in need of help in its service area, which runs from Troutman to Cleveland, Mount Ulla, and Mooresville.
Tabor-Gray’s substance use program serves all of Iredell County. The organization will also give emergency food boxes to anyone in the county.
♦ Donald Hicks from the Statesville Housing Authority said that the organization is creating courtyard living spaces for those individuals who either are transitioning from the hotels or Fifth Street Ministries homeless shelter.
♦ Many agencies working with families coming from Brookwood Inn, which is in the progress of shutting down in the next year or so, to keep these families out of homelessness.
The situation will require crisis management over next months and years. Wendy Martin of Goodwill suggested creating a working group focused just on this issue, along with formal an agreement with the hotel management that no back fill will occur after a family moves out to transitional housing.
“There is not one single entity in this community that can do everything that needs to be done out there, so that’s where we’re going to have to come together as community partners,” Navey said. “We do not want this crisis just to fall upon us. We want to aid these people to the next step of their life. The biggest concern is the elderly population residing there for years.”