News

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Work together on Seventh Avenue

By Bill Moss, Published: November 30, 2014

To their credit, the organizers of Joseph's Outreach Ministries have reached out to the Hendersonville Rescue Mission to explore how the two agencies can collaborate on serving the needy.

Those talks need to go forward and bear fruit, for the good of the city's ambitious Seventh Avenue redevelopment plans and for the good of the town overall. The Joseph ministry plans still sound like they're a bit of a work in progress. That's fine, given that organizers can't know the real need until the ministry opens its doors.
"We're working with the community, the whole Henderson County community, we're open to serving anybody that has a need to get themselves in a better position so they can be self-sustaining," Joseph's Ministries Chairman Austin Watson told us. "We're not just a homeless place. We have a lot of experience on our board — people that have actively run day centers, I've run a couple of nonprofits, our church."
The city of Hendersonville does not need to take on an active role in providing beds, education, computer training, checkups and a square meal for the homeless and needy among us. Among government agencies we have the county DSS and Health Department engaged in those missions. On the nongovernment side, nonprofit agencies are legion. The Free Clinics, Thrive (the mental health agency), the Children and Family Resource Center, the Housing Assistance Corp., Mainstay, the Boys and Girls Club and others all offer some piece of the services the new day center could potentially offer.
City Council member Steve Caraker was dead on when he recognized that the City Council had committed a gross oversight when it failed to put Rescue Mission CEO Anthony McMinn or his designee on the new Seventh Avenue Advisory Committee. Adding the Rescue Mission seat can only improve the redevelopment process.
We think a larger summit is needed, too, before Joseph's Outreach opens its doors. Neither the Rescue Mission nor the new day center nor for that matter the Storehouse should silo their efforts.
The mission's welcome center offers restroom, showers, phones, clothes, gym, medical clinic, gospel center, GED training, electronics charging stations and a place for day laborers. The Joseph Ministry center will also offer phones, restrooms and showers, Austin says, and will add laundry, veterans' assistance, mailboxes, limited storage, life skills training and youth tutoring and support. Like the Rescue Mission, it plans to offer a way for businesses to hire day laborers.
Training of volunteers, security and a long-range rehab strategies for clients are imperative for Joseph's ministry before it opens.

Anthony McMinn knows what a man on angel dust looks like and how to react; the Joseph's ministry volunteers may not. While they're doing good, the new service providers also need to be smart, safe and efficient.