(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Winter is technically over in about a month, but as we all know, it's still cold, and conditions can be uncomfortable and dangerous, especially for the homeless.

Organizers hope a new fundraiser in Central Illinois calls attention to the need for shelter, and raises support for their Center for Hope and Healing.

Larry Holt is the development director for Pathway Ministries, and John Rocke is the executive director.

Gentlemen, thanks for coming in.

- Thanks for having us.

- We're gonna talk about this event you're having this weekend in a minute, but Larry, first of all, people may be more familiar with Peoria Rescue Ministries.

- [Larry] Sure.

- Which is what your organization was called up until about two years ago.

Tell us about that name change.

- Yeah, so Peoria Rescue Ministries existed for 70 years, so we are in our 70th year now.

But two years ago, we really felt the need to rebrand, to re kind of introduce ourselves to the community.

The ministry had changed a lot over the last few years, really moving away from a focus on crisis relief to a primary focus more on getting people into longer-term programs, really helping them take the steps out of poverty, rather than just meet their immediate needs.

Really helping them to take the steps on a pathway out of poverty.

And so that became a phrase that we were using a lot, a pathway out of poverty.

And so a natural change to Pathway Ministries made a lot of sense.

And it really has given the chance to reintroduce who we are to the community, not just a homeless shelter, we still do that, we still meet those immediate needs, but really helping people find a pathway out has been our bigger emphasis over the last few years.

- Sure.

And you're building, very visible on Adam Street, just up the street from us.

So people may know it just by driving by there.

But John, tell us a little bit about, we'll talk about the long-term goals that you have, but let's talk just about the shelter for a little bit, and tell us who you serve, and how many folks that you do serve.

- Yeah, well, it's been a growing issue recently, but we serve adult men and women.

We have our Men's Residential Center downtown, as you said, by the iconic Jesus Save sign.

But then we also have our Women's Residential Center out on Allen Road, out in the north area.

And so we serve adult men and women, and we average about 180 men and women per night.

And then that number has really been growing ever since, coming kind of outta the pandemic, homelessness in the Peoria area has more than tripled.

It'll be really interesting that we just had the count, they do an official count, the government does in January, and we'll see where those numbers are going.

Maybe they moderate it back a little bit, but it's really been a growing crisis.

- What's your gut tell you about what those numbers might be?

Steady, higher?

- Yeah, I think they maybe have, you know, leveled off a little bit.

We work closely with the other agencies and ministries in town, like Dream Center and Salvation Army, and we've seen that we're not quite over capacity like we were in the last, you know, six, eight months.

So hopefully those numbers have come back down just a little bit, which is good to take the relief off.

- So the men and women that you do see, would you say most of them are chronically homeless?

Or do you, I mean, do you see folks that come in, maybe they, something bad just happened, and they need a night or two somewhere to stay?

- Yeah, you know, Mark, what's so unique is that, we talk about this all the time, when you think about poverty, or in particular homelessness as just an issue to solve, that's really unsolvable.

But when you think about it as a person, it's, you know, one person at a time.

And the reality of it is every story is absolutely different.

So we have everything that runs that spectrum from somebody who just had a situation, a medical bill or something really pushed them over the edge all the way, to those folks who have struggled for a long time, either in addiction or mental health challenge or those kinda things.

So we see across the spectrum, and that's why even what Larry said about the change that we've made as an organization from being focused on just food and shelter and clothing to now really lasting life change.

We get to learn those stories.

We get to hear why, what's happening for them, and then invite them on that pathway of change.

- It's why our staff has grown pretty dramatically over the last few years too, is because that really is, it is one-on-one meeting with people, finding out their individual story, and then helping them find their individual path, 'cause everybody does, they come to us for different reasons.

They've come from a different direction.

And each one of those takes takes a different process to help them get out.

They might need some just really practical steps of getting a new driver's license, or getting a new Social Security card.

They might need work-readiness training, they might need life skills training, they might need addiction recovery, a longer-term program.

But we don't know that until we sit with them and have those conversations.

And really it's one-on-one work with each person that walks in.

- Yeah, I'm curious about the people that you help, especially, you know, people have preconceived notions, and there are stereotypes about the homeless.

They're not all addicts.

They don't wanna be homeless, most of them, I would say.

Tell us about those people, though, that may come in, they've had a disaster in their life.

You know, there's the old saying about you could be one paycheck away from being homeless.

Tell us about maybe some examples of people that you've helped in that respect.

- Yeah, I can think of one gentleman in particular who really, he was fairly young, in his thirties, but had never, you know, stepped out into, he had lots of some trauma in his past.

And so he had never had a job, never really engaged in community.

And today he is a shift manager at a local retail outlet.

He is doing really well.

And those are just the fun examples of somebody who really came from, it wasn't addiction, it wasn't really an issue of mental health challenge, but it was really just some of the things that happened to him as a young man in growing up in a family that really led him down sort of a path that didn't allow him to really get out into the community and be a part of it.

And today he is.

- So give us a kind of an example of what happens when person A comes in.

I'm assuming you ask them, you know, what they need, what their main issues are, and then kind of where does it go from there?

- Yeah, I would say one of the differences that people might not understand, we actually start with what we call an asset-based approach.

And that's sounds kind of weird, but what that really means is we wanna sit down and say, "What are your goals?

And what are your gifts?

What do you, you know, what do you like to do?"

Suddenly now you're invested in your own plan and in your own goals.

And so it's not so much what do you need, but what can you do, and what would you like to do?

And so that really kind of changes the equation a little bit and makes them a participant.

What we really believe is it's gotta be participatory.

We can't want somebody to change more than they want that for themselves.

And so, beginning to have that conversation from that standpoint, about their dreams and their goals and their, you know, what they would like to see really kinda changes that equation.

- Sure.

So let's say someone comes in, and I'm guessing if someone's an addict, that's what you have to deal with right then and there.

But let's say someone's not, they're down on their luck.

How would you go about helping them find permanent housing and or a permanent job?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

And we do a lot of that through our case managers, our counselors, and again, just it's gonna really depend on what they've got going on, and what their, you know, their needs are.

But we have work readiness classes, we have life skill classes, so we do some education as part of it, but then it's really working with case managers to help them either prepare resumes, or get them into mock interviews, do the kind of things that it's gonna help them acquire a job, if that's the real issue.

Is it I'm really underemployed and I need help with that?

Is it that I don't have a driver's license, and so I can't drive or I lost my license?

How do we get those really necessary pieces of identification back?

All those kind of things go into it.

And that may take a few months, it may take several months, but as long as they're working on a plan and a path, then we want come alongside them and help them do that.

- It also means we need great relationships with local businesses that are willing to work with us, so that we have somebody that the case manager can call and say, "I've got this guy, we think he's got this skill set.

We think he, you know, he's gone through a class.

We think he is, you know, he's going to be a hard worker for you.

And would you consider interviewing him and bringing him in?"

So that's a group of businesses that we're trying to build so that we have those good connections to be able to meet those needs.

- I was just gonna say, we call those first-pass partners, meaning, you know, usually if you're looking for work for workers, and you get your stack of resumes, you know, you go through them without ever contacting them, and you just pass, you know, you just do that pass, and we say, get us past the first pass, because a lot of our resumes are gonna have gaps.

Or they're gonna have, you know, those signals that tell an employer, "Oh, this isn't gonna work."

But if they've come to us, and they've gone through our programming, they are ready to take a real permanent step into gainful employment.

- And the AI job recruiter might not understand what's going on with that resume.

So how are you all funded?

How do you all make this work?

- We are 100% funded from donations.

We don't take any government funding at all.

So it's 100% donations from individuals, businesses, churches.

We do that year round.

We're always fundraising.

We have just awesome partners that has been a growing base of donors.

Not necessarily numerically growing, but financially growing.

People are just investing more and more into what we do.

And we're just so grateful for those partners, and some great business partners and church partners that come alongside of us as well.

But no government funding, just this community pouring into this need.

- We're gonna talk about your event, Walk a Mile in My Shoes, in just a little bit.

You were gonna say something?

- Oh, I was just gonna say, I think what Larry, just to tie onto that there's a lot of people that want to help, they just don't know how.

And so what we are able to do is just kind of help them understand the impact that a good partner can make.

For example, Mark, it's crazy, but since 2022, we've placed more than 1,000 folks in employment, and something like 800 folks in permanent housing.

And so if they see that we can, you know, achieve results, and have really a positive impact taking somebody from costing our community to contributing to our community, then what we really are looking for is investors.

Because in essence that's what we're doing.

We're investing in lives to see, you know, our community better, all for the glory of God, but also for the good of many.

- You've been around for a long time, so something's working, that's for sure.

How has it been when you, you know, contact local businesses, and things like that to partner up with them?

Are they pretty receptive to the idea?

- Yeah, many of them are.

We have, like our event we have coming up has a whole new slew of sponsors that are all people that are fairly new to being part of what we do, and grateful for those kinda connections.

When we're reaching out about jobs and about, we have a number of partners that we know are gonna take the call, and doesn't mean they're gonna hire the person, 'cause it's gotta fit their needs, but they'll listen.

They'll take the call, and that's really all we're looking for is an opportunity and a chance to be able to go in and speak with.

And we've we've got some amazing partners in that.

- Yeah, and we've got some amazing organizations in this area, thankfully, in Twin Cities that are trying to help folks out.

And some of those people might just be a food pantry, or might provide shelter, and that's it.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

But when people find out that you do all that and you're trying to get people back on their feet, I bet they they wanna listen to that.

- Yeah, we always talk about it.

If we get five minutes with somebody, they usually bought in, 'cause it really is, it is a life-changing process that people walk through when they're with us, and we get the chance to really share beyond the just sound clip of here's the two or three things.

But when you get a really good chance to walk through and tell stories of life change.

People respond well.

- Have you ever had an instance where some of the people that you've helped, either find permanent housing or a permanent job, or both, once they're back on their feet, have they decided to give back also?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

We've got a lot of guys that have either are volunteers now with us or supporters, or just fans, and they share their stories, and it's really fun to hear.

- I bet.

How has it been since COVID?

I know COVID hit everybody negatively, and we've got a lot of nonprofits around here, and everybody's trying to get the same funding and the same help from people.

What's it been like for you all in the last few years?

- Well, I think I mentioned that it just really, homelessness has sort of exploded in our area since coming out of COVID.

And there's a lot of reasons.

We knew when COVID hit, there was a lot of concern about the impact on homelessness, and those kind of things.

And we were pretty convinced that it was really gonna be a trailing issue, because there was a lot of supports put in place, right, with housing and rental assistance and employment assistance, and those kind of things.

But that wasn't gonna continue forever.

And so some of that's economic, certainly we saw that, but also just we all know what the strain and stress was of COVID for all of us who have support systems, who have community, who have places where we can share some of that, but some folks don't.

And so I think that's really been exacerbating.

Some of the issues of coming out of that has really just driven some of those numbers.

And so it's been amazing to see, like I say, we've been, in essence, over capacity.

We've been sleeping people in our chapels quite a bit over the last 18 months.

And so it's been challenging, no doubt.

- I bet.

And in terms of, you know, the people that you do help, you just mentioned the overflow.

Are there things that you can't do simply, because either you don't have room or you don't have the funds to do it?

- We would love, well, there are several things we would love to be able to do.

- [Mark] What's on your wishlist?

- One of them is really space.

We currently, we can't really take people in if they're currently under the influence.

We can't mix them in with a population of guys that are trying to get away from that.

So we can't take a man or a woman who is currently under the influence and put them in the same... Now if it's freezing cold outside, we're a warming center, so we'll bring them in, but they have to just kind of stay in our receiving area.

And we would love to be able to welcome those people in with a little more space, with actual beds for them, with.

So we'd love to have that kind of opportunity where somebody who wants to come in off the street, maybe they're coming in just because they're cold, but it gives us a chance to really treat them in a way that maybe they'd wanna stay a little longer.

And right now we can keep them warm.

We wanna protect them, but that's about all we can offer.

We can offer them food and, but we can't offer them the kind of relationship that we'd love to be able to if we had the space for them to stay with us a little longer.

- Yeah, you mentioned earlier, Mark, that, you know, you kinda said probably most people don't wanna be homeless, right?

And there's so much truth in that, but somebody may not understand that, or even know that at the time.

They might be in the midst of addiction that has really overtaken them.

They might have gone through some trauma and abuse that have really put them in a situation where they just, they have no hope, they can't see the next day even.

And so, as Larry said, we wanna be able to meet them where they're at and then share, just get them to a place of safety and stability first, and then we can have the opportunity to invite them on a path of change.

And that takes some time for some people.

They have to learn to trust, you know?

A lot of people, our systems, people feel taken advantage of in a lot of different ways.

And so it takes a little bit of time.

Plus a lot of the folks that don't have hope, they don't think they can, they don't think they can make it, you know?

But when they find out that they're gonna have a community around them to actually walk that path with them, that begins to change things.

- You mentioned helping men and women.

If someone comes to you and they have kids, or there's a family, do you have to refer them somewhere else?

- We do, we partner really well with Dream Center Peoria.

In fact, just a little fact, about four years ago out at our Women's Residential Center, we used to take moms with kids and children, and we made the, what was a difficult, decision to stop doing that.

We were gonna focus strictly on the adult women.

And we thought, "Oh man, that's gonna be challenging."

We worked with Dream Center to say, "Hey, we don't ever want to turn anybody away, so if they come, can we work with you?"

And so we've partnered back and forth together on that.

When they know that women want a program, they're gonna send them to us.

And so we just worked back and forth to make sure that nobody is left out in the cold.

But when we did that, our numbers actually exploded, because women now have the opportunity to go to a place where they can focus on getting better so they can get their kids back.

We thought it was gonna be a, it was a real hard decision to make, and then it actually was a real benefit to those we serve.

- We are very much in the business of reuniting families, but in many cases, they need that time on their own to heal and to work through some things before they're really ready.

And so that's been an amazing opportunity that we've had at Women's Residential.

Men's as well.

But we do a lot of work to help reconnect the families then at the end of that process.

- Yeah, I just read some numbers that came out recently, unfortunately, the number of infants and toddlers who are unhoused, on the rise here in Illinois.

So tell me about, you know, you mentioned helping people get driver's licenses, Social Security cards, things like that.

How do you work with, or do you work with other social service and governmental agencies in town to help try and get people back on their feet?

Give us some examples of who you might work with.

- I think a real easy example is Phoenix Corporation.

So if you're familiar with Phoenix Corporation, they are sort of our local area's connection to housing.

And so they really, they're the ones that sort of administrate the HUD funds to get people housed.

And so a lot of times we believe this.

So I will share with you that in the government side, there's a bit of a philosophy called housing first.

And we think we would say housing when ready.

And because you may not be ready to go into a house first.

We wanna make sure that if homelessness, is that a symptom or a problem?

So we think we need to work first with the symptom.

But once we're ready, then we wanna work with partners.

And so Phoenix is one of our partners that we work with.

The other one I would say is on the medical side, health side.

We partner with OSF, with Carl, with Heartland Health.

In fact, OSF and Heartland Health come to our facilities and basically bring remote clinics to us on a weekly basis so that we... Because again, we want to bring a whole-person solution to somebody who's facing homelessness, abuse, addiction.

And so that's a real big important part of it.

- Yeah, I would imagine the medical side of it is a whole another can of worms.

I mean, you gotta think people should be on medication, and they're not.

And, wow.

Let's talk a little bit about what's going on this weekend.

Tell us about Walk a Mile in My Shoes, that event.

- Yeah, this is first annual, so we'll just say right now the plan is for this to be an annual event, but this is the first one we've done of this, and really wanted an easy on-ramp for people just to come and see, to be able to experience something, to be able to hear a little bit about the problem, hear a little bit about what some of the solutions are, and to be able to do that in a way that really walks them through, we hope, a real powerful experience.

We're gonna gather at Embassy Suites, and we're collecting just kind of some essential items of deodorant and soap and shampoo.

And so people are bringing those items.

And then after we're gonna hear a couple stories of people whose lives have been impacted by Pathway Ministries.

And then we're gonna grab a bunch of those essentials in bags.

We're gonna attach a name to those bags of somebody who stayed with us over this past year so that you're walking sort of representing that person.

And then we're gonna walk from Embassy Suites across the Bob Michel Bridge on the big walking path.

And it's right at a mile to walk there, and then one little turn, and then back to our downtown mission.

And then we're gonna be walking in then out of the cold, we think it will be pretty cold Saturday, walking in out of the cold into our receiving area, where homeless men are walking in on a daily basis.

And so really helping people feel that as they walk in, of, like, if this is all I had, carrying in one bag everything I own, walking in out of the cold into a place that's gonna be here to help me.

And so that they feel, not trying to replicate what it feels to be homeless, but just so they grab a little empathy there of what this would feel like.

And then just walking through our mission, dropping off the bags in our chapel, and then we'll be outside answering any questions people have.

And we're gonna have Yoder's Donuts and Travelin' Tom's coffee.

And so there'll be a little opportunity for people just to kind of gather and hang out there at the end, standing around in the cold.

- It seems like a good opportunity.

You know, people obviously give donations, and that's great, but if they can really see what you do and hear from the people you've helped.

Just like you said, you know, if you get them on the line for a minute, you can hook them.

- I'm sure there'll be people that have been supporters even of us for years that will come to this walk, and maybe walk into the building for the first time.

And actually, you know, there is something about when you walk in there, and you just, you feel what that space feels like, and it's a little different.

I think people will walk away with a better understanding of what it's they're supporting and what they're doing.

- Well, we hope it's cold this weekend, but not too cold for you.

- Right now it's like thirties in the morning.

It should be in the thirties, no rain.

So we're hoping that holds on.

That sounds great.

- That's key, no rain.

- That sounds beautiful.

- You know, and I say, Mark, I would love it.

We just talked about, we've had phenomenal response for the first time.

We have over 500 folks signed up.

So we're really excited.

But I think what a message it would send our community if we could fill one end of the bridge to the other with people who care about, you know, what's happening for folks in our community.

I think that would send a message all across the Midwest of what this town is like.

- Well, we definitely can use more empathy.

You know, this town, this area, Central Illinois is very charitable, but you can never have enough.

John Rocke and Larry Holt, we appreciate you coming in from Pathway Ministries.

Give us your website.

- www.pathwaypeoria.org.

- And on social media and all that fun stuff too?

- Oh yeah, yep.

- Alright, gentlemen, thanks a lot, and best of luck this weekend.

- Thank you.

- Thanks, Mark.

- Alright, that is our time for now.

We appreciate you joining us.

If you wanna watch this interview again, all you have to do is go to wtvp.org, and you can share it with family members, friends, put it on your social media, and get the word out about all the great happenings here in Central Illinois.

Hope you have a good night.

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