In 2017, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) reported that an average of 2,467 people in Arkansas experience homelessness on any given night. In Searcy, a network of local organizations are working to empower these displaced families in White County and change the community\u2019s perception of what it means to be \u201chomeless.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot describe a homeless person, other than just to say they\u2019re a person,\u201d Joshua Stewart, a member of the board at Mission Machine Inc., said. \u201cThe situation of each [person] and the stereotypes we see are just not accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mission Machine\u2019s volunteer-only team, including Stewart, aims to meet White County\u2019s homeless population \u201cwhere they are at.\u201d The organization utilizes its most recognizable feature, a bright-green van, to locate and connect with those experiencing homelessness throughout the county. Anyone that expresses the need is offered a tent and a spot at Mission Machine\u2019s tent camp right outside of Searcy city limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have to turn anybody away for [a tent],\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to judge their sincerity or condition. If somebody is in bad enough shape to stay in a tent in our camp, that\u2019s the proof itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Road to Damascus is run by Harding alumnus Jimmy Cooper and originated as a branch of Mission Machine. Today, Road to Damascus is a separate nonprofit that seeks to serve single men, who, according to Cooper, are the least-served demographic of homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not just trying to get them saved up and out the door,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make sure they don\u2019t end up back in the situation they were in when they came here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Stewart, Cooper said he also believes that homelessness is often perceived incorrectly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s really no such thing as typical,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cThere\u2019s no typical homeless person. People look at homeless people like they\u2019re different [from themselves]; they\u2019re not. People are the same regardless of circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Close to Harding\u2019s campus, Jacob\u2019s Place Homeless Mission offers shelter and support to Searcy\u2019s displaced homeless families, specifically those with children. Up to three families at a time can be housed at the nonprofit\u2019s facility, and after three months, a family is usually prepared to move on. According to Jami Bever, adjunct professor of behavioral sciences and Jacob\u2019s Place board member, the organization\u2019s mission is to be a \u201chand up instead of a hand out\u201d and has served 248 children, 149 women and 37 men to date.<\/p>\n
While staying at Jacob\u2019s Place, residents partake in a structured program that includes counseling and financial guidance. Even though the ministry is so close to campus, Bever said she often sees a wide disparity between Harding students and their awareness of homelessness in Searcy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy to come to Harding and do Harding and forget about the community that\u2019s around us,\u201d Bever said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to get caught up in our everyday lives \u2026 and forget that just a couple blocks away from campus is poverty and the reality of families that are struggling.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Bonny Gregory, Jacob\u2019s Place director, Jacob\u2019s Place frequently collaborates with other Searcy organizations that minister to those experiencing homelessness. Jacob\u2019s Place often refers families to Mission Machine and Road to Damascus, and vice versa. Though the organizations have been working in the community for several years now, Gregory said there is still more work to do, and there will be until nationwide changes are made.<\/p>\n
“I think the most alarming thing to me is the number of calls we get \u2014 that we have a waiting list, that we are full almost all the time,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cFor me, that says, as many people as we\u2019re helping and as wonderful as it is, how many people are we not able to take in? How many people are out there that need somewhere to go?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Searcy nonprofit leaders clarify misconceptions about homelessness and discuss their efforts to minister to displaced families In 2017, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) reported that an average…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15099,"featured_media":11978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[566,567,568],"class_list":["post-11977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-homelessness","tag-jacobs-place","tag-mission-machine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15099"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12011,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11977\/revisions\/12011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}