Erin Wisdom / ewisdom@miconews.com
Jay Preston is the director of My Father’s House Community Services, which opened in November and serves the homeless in Miami and Linn counties. Last month, Preston spoke at a conference in Washington, D.C., about how his organization has dealt with the challenges of helping the homeless in rural areas.
Jay Preston is the director of My Father’s House Community Services, which opened in November and serves the homeless in Miami and Linn counties. Last month, Preston spoke at a conference in Washington, D.C., about how his organization has dealt with the challenges of helping the homeless in rural areas.
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Speaking from experience
Director of Paola organization for the homeless presents at national conference
By: Erin Wisdom, ewisdom@miconews.com
For some span of time in his early 20s, Jay Preston's home was the “M” of the “Manhattan” spelled out across the hillside above Manhattan, Kan. His days passed in a drug- and depression-induced haze, and he didn't know, as one faded into the next, exactly how long he'd gone without a bed and a roof over his head.
He didn't know, either, how his experience with homelessness would one day be used to help others experiencing it.
Today, Preston is the director of My Father's House Community Services at 1004 N. Pearl St. in Paola. He created Community Services, which opened in November, to help the homeless in Miami and Linn counties by providing them with shelter and services they need to become self-sufficient.
Operating an organization like this in a rural area has presented certain challenges, and recently, Preston shared with service providers across the nation how he's dealt with these.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PARTNERSHIPS>
What began with Preston living on top of that hill in Manhattan led to him speaking on Capitol Hill last month.
On July 10, he gave a presentation at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which was July 9-11 at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, D.C.
It was a conversation that Preston had with a woman at the annual conference of the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition, shortly before Community Services opened, that led to her asking him to speak at this national conference.
“I was complaining to her about the difficulty of getting resources in rural areas,” he said. “We're not like urban areas that can more easily get grants or have a lot of big foundations.”
Preston's presentation last month focused on how service providers in rural areas can combat this lack of resources by forming partnerships with organizations in their communities — such as the partnerships Community Services has developed with hundreds of businesses, churches and other groups that have provided it with supplies and services.
One of its most important partnerships has been with Americare, the company that has leased Community Services its facilities for only a dollar a year and that, Preston learned last week, soon will hand over the deed to the building. Having ownership of these facilities will give Community Services more freedom to make changes and renovations to them and might also help it in securing funding.
“A building worth a little more than $1 million is good for leveraging grants,” he said.
A CUTTING-EDGE COMMITMENT
Not ever having made a presentation at the national level, Preston wasn't sure how helpful his advice would be. The conference showed him, however, that his experience with Community Services really was something others could learn from.
“The conference was very affirming that we're heading in the right direction, and even that we're ahead (of other organizations),” he said.
An example of a cutting-edge idea Community Services uses is a principle called “harm reduction.” At its core, this is a commitment to accept people as they are and to focus first on fixing only the most harmful aspects of their lives, rather than taking on too much too soon.
“There aren't a lot of places around that do that, but we were doing it before we knew what it was called,” Preston said. “I think it's an act of God that we made the decision to do the right thing.”
FOCUSING ON THE FUTURE
In addition to showing him what Community Services is doing well, the conference on Capitol Hill also gave Preston a better idea of how the organization should develop over the next few years.
One of the main shifts in thinking he experienced at the conference concerned how his organization should serve its clients. Currently, it houses only families and single women, and Preston had planned, within the next five years, to create another facility for single men.
After learning more about a concept called “transition in place,” however, he came to see it as a way that might more effectively serve not only men, but also women and families. “Transition in place” refers to a situation in which a provider, such as Community Services, pays for homeless individuals to live in an apartment or other rental property and works to help them reach a place where they can become self-sufficient and eventually take over the rent payments.
“This gets someone who's homeless into housing immediately, then wraps services around that,” Preston said.
The arrangement would create a consistent living situation for these people, he added, and also would free space in Community Services' residential wing — which currently has a waiting list — for those most in need of intensive counseling and assistance.
Although these developments might be a way down the road, Preston has something else to look forward to in the more immediate future: another speaking engagement. He will make his presentation on creative partnerships again at the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition's annual conference, which is scheduled for Oct. 23-24.
The conference will be in Manhattan, which means Preston will be speaking about ways to combat homelessness in the place he once experienced it. The irony of this isn't lost on him — and neither is the fact that in the years since he was homeless there, Manhattan has built a homeless shelter.
“I don't know that anyone noticed me (being homeless),” he said, “but I jokingly say that I'm responsible for that shelter.”
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He didn't know, either, how his experience with homelessness would one day be used to help others experiencing it.
Today, Preston is the director of My Father's House Community Services at 1004 N. Pearl St. in Paola. He created Community Services, which opened in November, to help the homeless in Miami and Linn counties by providing them with shelter and services they need to become self-sufficient.
Operating an organization like this in a rural area has presented certain challenges, and recently, Preston shared with service providers across the nation how he's dealt with these.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PARTNERSHIPS>
What began with Preston living on top of that hill in Manhattan led to him speaking on Capitol Hill last month.
On July 10, he gave a presentation at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which was July 9-11 at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, D.C.
It was a conversation that Preston had with a woman at the annual conference of the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition, shortly before Community Services opened, that led to her asking him to speak at this national conference.
“I was complaining to her about the difficulty of getting resources in rural areas,” he said. “We're not like urban areas that can more easily get grants or have a lot of big foundations.”
Preston's presentation last month focused on how service providers in rural areas can combat this lack of resources by forming partnerships with organizations in their communities — such as the partnerships Community Services has developed with hundreds of businesses, churches and other groups that have provided it with supplies and services.
One of its most important partnerships has been with Americare, the company that has leased Community Services its facilities for only a dollar a year and that, Preston learned last week, soon will hand over the deed to the building. Having ownership of these facilities will give Community Services more freedom to make changes and renovations to them and might also help it in securing funding.
“A building worth a little more than $1 million is good for leveraging grants,” he said.
A CUTTING-EDGE COMMITMENT
Not ever having made a presentation at the national level, Preston wasn't sure how helpful his advice would be. The conference showed him, however, that his experience with Community Services really was something others could learn from.
“The conference was very affirming that we're heading in the right direction, and even that we're ahead (of other organizations),” he said.
An example of a cutting-edge idea Community Services uses is a principle called “harm reduction.” At its core, this is a commitment to accept people as they are and to focus first on fixing only the most harmful aspects of their lives, rather than taking on too much too soon.
“There aren't a lot of places around that do that, but we were doing it before we knew what it was called,” Preston said. “I think it's an act of God that we made the decision to do the right thing.”
FOCUSING ON THE FUTURE
In addition to showing him what Community Services is doing well, the conference on Capitol Hill also gave Preston a better idea of how the organization should develop over the next few years.
One of the main shifts in thinking he experienced at the conference concerned how his organization should serve its clients. Currently, it houses only families and single women, and Preston had planned, within the next five years, to create another facility for single men.
After learning more about a concept called “transition in place,” however, he came to see it as a way that might more effectively serve not only men, but also women and families. “Transition in place” refers to a situation in which a provider, such as Community Services, pays for homeless individuals to live in an apartment or other rental property and works to help them reach a place where they can become self-sufficient and eventually take over the rent payments.
“This gets someone who's homeless into housing immediately, then wraps services around that,” Preston said.
The arrangement would create a consistent living situation for these people, he added, and also would free space in Community Services' residential wing — which currently has a waiting list — for those most in need of intensive counseling and assistance.
Although these developments might be a way down the road, Preston has something else to look forward to in the more immediate future: another speaking engagement. He will make his presentation on creative partnerships again at the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition's annual conference, which is scheduled for Oct. 23-24.
The conference will be in Manhattan, which means Preston will be speaking about ways to combat homelessness in the place he once experienced it. The irony of this isn't lost on him — and neither is the fact that in the years since he was homeless there, Manhattan has built a homeless shelter.
“I don't know that anyone noticed me (being homeless),” he said, “but I jokingly say that I'm responsible for that shelter.”