Are You Alright!?
How are you doing? How can I help?
These are the questions supporters are currently asking us. This week at Love INC, COVID-19’s effects are most easily seen when stay-at-home-orders put pressure on doubled-up families, (those staying with friends or family). Many are no longer welcome with their host. Monday a family of 5 came “home” to find the door locked. This family “moved into” their car, which immediately broke down. Love INC placed them in a hotel and is working to get the car repaired.
Love INC’s work of getting into people’s difficult situations with them, and helping them walk forward, is more critical now than perhaps any time in our history. We are over capacity in the best of times, the current situation is unimaginable. So, to answer the questions:
How are you doing?
The following report shows that Love INC was born in times like this. God is sustaining - and will sustain - us! We believe recent staffing changes are providential to help us navigate the current crisis. Read the stories following our report.
How can I help? Project 100!
Project 100 is a monthly giving plan at $100/month that when fully funded will provide the ongoing support needed to keep Love INC services available to the most vulnerable. Read more to discover how crisis birthed Love INC and the ways God has prepared us for such a time as this.
Hurricane Katrina, The Great Recession, COVID-19, and Love INC
Report from the Field
Hurricane Katrina helps launch Love INC
Traveling in clothes she had worn through the Gulf floodwaters, pregnant "Samantha" and about 500 other evacuees arrived at Second Baptist Church in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Love INC Co-founder Jane Williams, Food Bank Director Peggy Kirkpatrick, and Boone County Health and Human Services Director Steve Hollis put out a call for help. Over 50 churches responded and partnered to triage, resource, and place the New Orleanders, helping them transition to a new life. The effort demonstrated to our community the importance of working together and laid the foundation for what is now Love INC. Today’s Love Seat Furniture Bank was born in the midst of that tragedy.
Love INC in the Great Recession
Three years later in May of 2008 Love INC opened its doors to a city reeling in the throes of the Great Recession. With few physical resources to provide - a tiny team of volunteers opened 80 cases that first month. Our lack of resources forced an approach based on “helping people help themselves” and formed the philosophy that has driven Love INC ever since. It helped to create a new paradigm for how our city responds to poverty. Heart of Missouri United Way's shift to Community Impact based on proven outcomes, and Boone Information Group’s creation of shared language through a common taxonomy of services, are further examples of paradigm shifts in how social services are provided and described.
Paradigm Shifts
Two tragedies, both caused paradigm shifts, both required overall and individual responses. COVID – 19 is another opportunity for the power of love and coordination to prevail over tragedy.
Looming Realities
Our situation at Love INC could be compared to standing on a beach watching a rapidly receding tide that indicates an impending tsunami. It is the calm before the storm. Governor Parsons on Monday put a hold on evictions, Boone Electric, and City of Columbia postponed utility cut-offs last week, many business landlords are waiving rent. Though these expenses are on hold now, the balances are accruing and will eventually come due. Columbia’s employment landscape will most certainly change in the coming months. We’ve heard predictions of Great Depression era unemployment as the impacts of social distancing take their toll on travel, production, and many areas of employment. We face a potential increasing crisis of stable housing. Love INC's role in employment and housing search coaching, as well as transitional employment and housing services, will be taxed like never before. Social distancing will challenge coach/client interaction. Love INC is over capacity in normal economic times, our viability now is more important than ever. Our efforts to identify the most vulnerable and connect them with guidance and all available resources will outstrip our current capacity.