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My Father's House expanding to serve others
Five years after opening its doors in Paola, organization looking to expand its services to four additional counties
By: Erin Wisdom, ewisdom@miconews.com
Five years after its humble beginnings, My Father's House Community Services is taking a step toward serving a larger area.
The organization, located at 1004 N. Pearl St. in Paola, serves homeless individuals and families in Miami and Linn counties by providing shelter and services intended to help its clients get back on their feet.
Director Jay Preston has hoped for some time to be able to expand these services to other rural counties – including Franklin, Anderson, Allen and Bourbon – and after making some connections in Fort Scott, it seems this hope is beginning to become a reality.
“Our name has carried down there, and they're excited about participating,” Preston said. “We've been very well received, which I think is due to the fact that their hearts are in such a place they just want to help the people in their area.”
Preston recently spoke at meetings of both the Ministerial Alliance and the Bourbon County Coalition in Fort Scott, telling a story about a homeless woman and her baby who were living in a tent at Lake Miola. Although situations like this aren't uncommon in Miami and Linn counties, he said, he believes they're even more common in counties that are further away from Kansas City and its resources.
“These counties represent a pocket of poverty,” he said. “They have a lot of working poor, and organizations like churches are doing the best they can to help, but they're limited in what they can do.”
Rather than establishing a shelter in Fort Scott like the one in Paola, Preston plans to work with people there to implement a system called “transition in place.” This creates 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 are self-sufficient and can take over the rent payments.
Like Preston's organization in Paola, the system set up in Fort Scott likely will be funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Preston plans to begin the process of applying for the grant – which should take five or six months – in January.
Although the grant money required for an endeavor like this stretches into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, a lot also depends upon the partnerships of organizations in the community. In Paola, these partnerships have come from businesses and other groups that have made not only monetary donations, but also donations of goods and services.
Evidence of one of Preston's first partnerships in Fort Scott came just last week, in the form of a $250 check from a Presbyterian church.
“We're very excited about this partnership (with people and organizations in Fort Scott),” he said. “We're not trying to conquer new ground; we just understand the struggles of small communities that don't have a lot of resources, and we want to share what we've learned about how to help people.
For more information about My Father's House Community Services, call 294-3600, e-mail info@my-fathers-house.com or view its Web site at www.my-fathers-house.com.
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The organization, located at 1004 N. Pearl St. in Paola, serves homeless individuals and families in Miami and Linn counties by providing shelter and services intended to help its clients get back on their feet.
Director Jay Preston has hoped for some time to be able to expand these services to other rural counties – including Franklin, Anderson, Allen and Bourbon – and after making some connections in Fort Scott, it seems this hope is beginning to become a reality.
“Our name has carried down there, and they're excited about participating,” Preston said. “We've been very well received, which I think is due to the fact that their hearts are in such a place they just want to help the people in their area.”
Preston recently spoke at meetings of both the Ministerial Alliance and the Bourbon County Coalition in Fort Scott, telling a story about a homeless woman and her baby who were living in a tent at Lake Miola. Although situations like this aren't uncommon in Miami and Linn counties, he said, he believes they're even more common in counties that are further away from Kansas City and its resources.
“These counties represent a pocket of poverty,” he said. “They have a lot of working poor, and organizations like churches are doing the best they can to help, but they're limited in what they can do.”
Rather than establishing a shelter in Fort Scott like the one in Paola, Preston plans to work with people there to implement a system called “transition in place.” This creates 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 are self-sufficient and can take over the rent payments.
Like Preston's organization in Paola, the system set up in Fort Scott likely will be funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Preston plans to begin the process of applying for the grant – which should take five or six months – in January.
Although the grant money required for an endeavor like this stretches into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, a lot also depends upon the partnerships of organizations in the community. In Paola, these partnerships have come from businesses and other groups that have made not only monetary donations, but also donations of goods and services.
Evidence of one of Preston's first partnerships in Fort Scott came just last week, in the form of a $250 check from a Presbyterian church.
“We're very excited about this partnership (with people and organizations in Fort Scott),” he said. “We're not trying to conquer new ground; we just understand the struggles of small communities that don't have a lot of resources, and we want to share what we've learned about how to help people.
For more information about My Father's House Community Services, call 294-3600, e-mail info@my-fathers-house.com or view its Web site at www.my-fathers-house.com.