Letter to the Editor
July 29, 2020
Barry and Lawrence Counties are collectively home to just under 80,000 people. Within our community, we have a diverse rural population, with many unmet needs. Often, in order to meet those needs, an hour-long trip to Springfield, Joplin (or farther) is required.
A group of not-for-profits, businesses and churches have started working together to identify some of these gaps in services.
Our hope for the future is to expand existing services on a local level, plus provide some services locally which are now only available in larger urban areas.
Here are some of the more urgent needs in our area:
• Youth activities and mentorship.
• Education and job advancement programs.
• Advocacy.
• Affordable childcare.
Frederick Douglas said “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
We want to start locally from birth and work our way up in our community to build strong kids so they will turn out to be strong community members.
One issue we have is the lack of adequate and affordable childcare. We have 100 churches and over 80 of them sit relatively empty during the week. These churches incur overhead whether their doors are open or not. Perhaps an affordable, safe, convenient childcare solution can be established within our community by conversations with church leaders and preschool/daycare teachers.
Another deficit in our area is the lack of a formal mentorship program for children under 18, such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Most schools don’t have Lunches with Buddies or after-school homework help either, mentoring programs which this area used to support.
There is a Grandparent’s as Mentors program, but we only have about 20 adults enrolled. The 2 local YMCAs have a host of programs, but they tend to attract the age 13 and under crowd.
Our 2 counties have about 100 churches but after an informal survey, we only found that about 25 of those churches have an active and attended youth program, specific to that church.
Our area is ripe with an organic volunteer base but there is no coordination between organizations that rely on volunteers.
If we coordinate kids with experienced adults, a mentorship program will easily be created.”
It has been found that, nationwide, the delinquency percentages goes down when there are programs to keep kids under the age of 18 positively engaged. Missouri’s data on juveniles is not up-to-date, but according to statistics found on dds.mo.gov’s last reporting, the majority of all the juvenile law violation referrals in 2008, 54 percent were 15 and 16-year-old youths. This age group was most likely to be referred for stealing, assault, property damage, or dangerous drugs. This same pattern was seen among most of the age group 13 - 18.
“In my law enforcement experience in Barry County, I feel there are as many crimes against youth as there are youth committing crimes,” Danny Boyd, Barry County candidate for Sheriff, said. “I believe to help alleviate this, a mentorship for youth with law enforcement officers and others would be beneficial. I also think that making them accountable for their actions by community service and then mentoring other teens will better prepare them for adulthood,” Boyd finished.
Currently there is not a mandated community service or restitution for the youth offenders, a deterrent statistically proven to help keep juvenile crimes down.
So, why haven’t we seen continued positive change in our community if all the resources and solutions are already available to us locally?
Simply put, we need to have a community conversation. If we know what each not-for-profit, community group and church is offering, then we won’t need to duplicate services or efforts unless absolutely necessary. The cost saved by not repeating overhead with each non-profit, and offering expanded services instead of duplicated services is substantial. For this reason we are establishing a local “hub” for all not-for-profits and community groups to be located together. This cuts down on overhead for these groups and, logistically, the clients will benefit from having fewer places to go for services. Those with children, a disabled family member or lack of reliable transportation will benefit from this one-stop-shop idea the most.
The mission of revitalizing and transforming a community begins with the individual, along with the foundational truth, “what a man thinks, he becomes.”
If the way a person thinks can be changed, the person can permanently be changed. This can be a lasting, positive, generational change for our area. “
I believe all of the resources we need are already within our reach.
And with that thought, we formed a new group: a kind of one stop shop for HELP, for both existing not-for-profits, groups and community members: Southwest Missouri Coalition of Charities & Community Services. (SWMO CCCS). We are a diverse group of people, with like-minded ideas of what we want to see for our community, and our children’s and grandchildren's communities. We want a lasting, positive change.
Communities are transformed when people invest in others and help them look beyond what they currently see.
Only recently in the United States have we looked to the government to take care of us. For most of this country's history, especially locally, the community took care of itself. Churches, groups and individuals all lent a hand to take care of their own.
With so many government jobs being terminated and grants and funds being unavailable due to big Covid-19 payouts, we feel that we must go back to the pattern of community taking care of its residents.
Please join us for our virtual Community Conversation on Thursday, July 30th, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. We’d love to hear your ideas. To join, go to: https://zoom.us/join. Click “join meeting.” The Zoom ID # is 4176691256.
If you can’t make the meeting, text, call, email or send us a fb message and let us know how you can invest in somebody else and help them to see a life beyond their current circumstances!
SW MO CCCS can be reached at 417.772.3611 and [email protected]
Rachel Luebbering
Purdy, Mo.
Resources Coordinator with Southwest Missouri Coalition of Charities & Community Services (SWMO CCCS)
A group of not-for-profits, businesses and churches have started working together to identify some of these gaps in services.
Our hope for the future is to expand existing services on a local level, plus provide some services locally which are now only available in larger urban areas.
Here are some of the more urgent needs in our area:
• Youth activities and mentorship.
• Education and job advancement programs.
• Advocacy.
• Affordable childcare.
Frederick Douglas said “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
We want to start locally from birth and work our way up in our community to build strong kids so they will turn out to be strong community members.
One issue we have is the lack of adequate and affordable childcare. We have 100 churches and over 80 of them sit relatively empty during the week. These churches incur overhead whether their doors are open or not. Perhaps an affordable, safe, convenient childcare solution can be established within our community by conversations with church leaders and preschool/daycare teachers.
Another deficit in our area is the lack of a formal mentorship program for children under 18, such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Most schools don’t have Lunches with Buddies or after-school homework help either, mentoring programs which this area used to support.
There is a Grandparent’s as Mentors program, but we only have about 20 adults enrolled. The 2 local YMCAs have a host of programs, but they tend to attract the age 13 and under crowd.
Our 2 counties have about 100 churches but after an informal survey, we only found that about 25 of those churches have an active and attended youth program, specific to that church.
Our area is ripe with an organic volunteer base but there is no coordination between organizations that rely on volunteers.
If we coordinate kids with experienced adults, a mentorship program will easily be created.”
It has been found that, nationwide, the delinquency percentages goes down when there are programs to keep kids under the age of 18 positively engaged. Missouri’s data on juveniles is not up-to-date, but according to statistics found on dds.mo.gov’s last reporting, the majority of all the juvenile law violation referrals in 2008, 54 percent were 15 and 16-year-old youths. This age group was most likely to be referred for stealing, assault, property damage, or dangerous drugs. This same pattern was seen among most of the age group 13 - 18.
“In my law enforcement experience in Barry County, I feel there are as many crimes against youth as there are youth committing crimes,” Danny Boyd, Barry County candidate for Sheriff, said. “I believe to help alleviate this, a mentorship for youth with law enforcement officers and others would be beneficial. I also think that making them accountable for their actions by community service and then mentoring other teens will better prepare them for adulthood,” Boyd finished.
Currently there is not a mandated community service or restitution for the youth offenders, a deterrent statistically proven to help keep juvenile crimes down.
So, why haven’t we seen continued positive change in our community if all the resources and solutions are already available to us locally?
Simply put, we need to have a community conversation. If we know what each not-for-profit, community group and church is offering, then we won’t need to duplicate services or efforts unless absolutely necessary. The cost saved by not repeating overhead with each non-profit, and offering expanded services instead of duplicated services is substantial. For this reason we are establishing a local “hub” for all not-for-profits and community groups to be located together. This cuts down on overhead for these groups and, logistically, the clients will benefit from having fewer places to go for services. Those with children, a disabled family member or lack of reliable transportation will benefit from this one-stop-shop idea the most.
The mission of revitalizing and transforming a community begins with the individual, along with the foundational truth, “what a man thinks, he becomes.”
If the way a person thinks can be changed, the person can permanently be changed. This can be a lasting, positive, generational change for our area. “
I believe all of the resources we need are already within our reach.
And with that thought, we formed a new group: a kind of one stop shop for HELP, for both existing not-for-profits, groups and community members: Southwest Missouri Coalition of Charities & Community Services. (SWMO CCCS). We are a diverse group of people, with like-minded ideas of what we want to see for our community, and our children’s and grandchildren's communities. We want a lasting, positive change.
Communities are transformed when people invest in others and help them look beyond what they currently see.
Only recently in the United States have we looked to the government to take care of us. For most of this country's history, especially locally, the community took care of itself. Churches, groups and individuals all lent a hand to take care of their own.
With so many government jobs being terminated and grants and funds being unavailable due to big Covid-19 payouts, we feel that we must go back to the pattern of community taking care of its residents.
Please join us for our virtual Community Conversation on Thursday, July 30th, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. We’d love to hear your ideas. To join, go to: https://zoom.us/join. Click “join meeting.” The Zoom ID # is 4176691256.
If you can’t make the meeting, text, call, email or send us a fb message and let us know how you can invest in somebody else and help them to see a life beyond their current circumstances!
SW MO CCCS can be reached at 417.772.3611 and [email protected]
Rachel Luebbering
Purdy, Mo.
Resources Coordinator with Southwest Missouri Coalition of Charities & Community Services (SWMO CCCS)
