The Hopkinsville Salvation Army was joined by the community on Monday for the ribbon cutting and dedication of their new Life Navigation Hub which will provide space and resources to help homeless people improve their quality of life.
After the ribbon was cut, attendees were invited into the hub to learn how it came to be and how it will serve Hopkinsville’s homeless population. Lorena Hood, the director of social services for the Salvation Army’s Kentucky-Tennessee Division, shared that the Life Navigation Program pairs homeless individuals with case managers that can help connect them to resources to improve their living situation.
Hood says the program has three phases, engage, empower and equip. Hood says engagement is the processes of Salvation Army workers making contact with homeless individuals, learning about their situations and providing them with basic necessities such as food, water and shelter.
The Hopkinsville Salvation Army has started doing homeless outreach where workers make contact with homeless individuals where they are staying.
The next step, empowerment, is one that Hood believes is the most important. During the phase the Salvation Army provides life coaching to help homeless individuals reflect on how they became homeless, how they can improve their lives and creating steps to reach their goals.
The final step, equip, is where the non-profit supplies homeless individuals with resources and tools to reach their goals of stability. Those tools and resources include housing and employment.
Before the hub was established, Hopkinsville Salvation Army Lieutenant, Lindsey Galabeas says their case managers would meet with homeless individuals in a dining room at house across the street from the nonprofit that did not offer much privacy to workers or their clients.
Galabeas shared that they recently received a grant to hire more case managers, but they did not have space for them to work. With the new hub, Galabeas says they will be able to hire more case managers and help more homeless people.
The space that is now home to the hub was once a storage space, and since July 2023 Galabeas says they have been working to convert it into the hub and is excited to see the space completed and operational.
The event concluded, with longtime Salvation Army volunteer Ann Cox sharing a dedication prayer. Before her prayer Cox shared that she first came to the Salvation Army when she was 3 years old where she received a new pair of shoes. Cox says she still remembers what the shoes looked like.
More information about the Live Navigation Hub can be found on the nonprofit’s Facebook page at The Salvation Army Hopkinsville, KY.