Main Street center empowers local homeless
Annemarie Valli
Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: News
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Dr. James Faltot, pastor of congressional care and outreach for the church, said a coalition of 10 different churches with a shared concern for the local poor community combined efforts and resources to create the center.
"We asked each faith community to put a call out for volunteers and set up a training program," Faltot said. "We had 50 people show up - it's pretty impressive, and more people are still coming."
The center - open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m. - is staffed by a number of trained volunteers from various churches who welcome and counsel the local homeless who find comfort under the church's wing, he said.
"It's natural for a church to have it, so centrally located on Main Street with so much traffic and people looking for help," Faltot said.
Marc Marcus, assistant executive director of the Friendship House in Wilmington, said his background of working with men's and women's homeless shelters has prepared him for his volunteer position at the Empowerment Center.
Marcus said within its first month, the center has helped more than 50 individuals, approximately half of those people returning to the shelter for additional visits.
The volunteers' strategies are to work with the poor to alleviate their current hardships and to help them prepare for the future, he said.
"We're not just an organization that divvies out money for an electric bill over here and money for that over there," Marcus said. "We're really an organization that sits down and talks with you."
He said because the homeless begin to see the genuine effort counselors take in hearing and understanding their troubles, some are inclined to let their guard down and form a relationship with advisers.
"To let someone in that much really makes a difference in the way they live," Marcus said.
The stories and backgrounds of homeless people who visit the center vary across the board, as do their needs and concerns they bring to shelter volunteers, he said.
The hub offers the poor a home base for mail and phone services. Volunteers also help by paying for rent, utility and medical bills, as well as ticket vouchers for bus trips and overnight hotel stays, Faltot said. They also provide food and toiletry bags to grab on the way out.
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