Tag Archives: United Way of Northeast Arkansas

Nonprofits play pivotal role in helping homeless

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By Brooke Buckner
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO — Nonprofits provide resources for the increasing homeless community.

The Salvation Army is the only homeless shelter in Jonesboro, but there are many other resources for the homeless.

United Way of Northeast Arkansas and The Hub help the homeless community, but don’t house them.

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Nanette Heard and Shaila Creekmore at United Way of NEA. (photo by Brooke Buckner)

United Way helps the working people and serves eight counties. They provide a backpack program for kids in need of food with the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas and fund a program called Homeless to Self-Sufficient with Mission Outreach of Northeast Arkansas.

Nanette Heard, executive director of United Way, said, “A lot of what we do is raise funds for programs. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of shelters in our area.”

UWNA helps people get back to work by providing work clothing, boots, childcare and transportation. Most of their programs are geared toward kids.

Gwendolyn Zugarek, executive director of The Hub, said the 2-year-old resource center provides a 90-day program for the homeless. The first step to helping people is tracking down their birth certificate or getting them an ID so that they can move forward from there.

HUB“The main thing that we do is we sit down with our guests and we talk to them about what is going on in their life,” Zugarek said.

The Hub offers a bike program allowing guests who don’t have transportation to ride a bike to their job. The guest’s responsibility is to buy the bike lock.

Currently, the Hub is a community-funded organization. They usually see an estimated 40 new homeless individuals every month and they helped 532 individuals in their first year of being open. Their mail center helps the less fortunate receive benefits.

Shelters Outside of Jonesboro

Shelters in Blytheville and Paragould provide help year-round for the homeless.

Blytheville’s Mississippi Union County Mission helps women, children and men. Most of the children who come in are 17 to 18 years of age. The majority of residents are single.

There’s no time restraint for living at the Mission, but the average time is three to four months.

Mission Outreach of Northeast Arkansas in Paragould takes all ages and people can live there for up to two years. Director Cheri Peters said she sees more single people coming into the shelter. In 2018, Mission Outreach of NEA provided shelter for 452 people.

The Mission houses 55 and Mission Outreach houses 58 people. Both of these shelters house increasing numbers during the winter and summer.

In addition to housing and feeding residents, Mission Outreach helps residents with birth certificates, employment and insurance.

Lisa Willard, executive director of The Mission, said they offer a work program consisting of yard work or odd jobs. The charge for the community is $10 per hour and the workers get paid $8.50 per hour.

Similarly, Mission Outreach offers jobs and provides transportation for their working residents like United Way does.

Both of these shelters feed the less fortunate by serving food boxes. The Mission serves 100 food boxes per week.

Mission Outreach’s food pantry feeds low-to-moderate income families. These families can come once a month to get food boxes. They also have a soup kitchen that prepares three meals per day.

“For the food box, you have to be a Greene County resident,” Peters said.

Willard and Peters said they enjoy working at these shelters because they watch lives transform.

The community can help each of these organizations by volunteering or donating toiletry items, canned goods, blankets and furniture.

Damphousse Seeks Community Ties

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By Kimberely Blackburn
Delta Digital News Service

Damphousse Window Art

Window art featuring Kelly, Beth and Maple Leif Damphousse decorated the window of the Chancellor’s office. Damphousse became A-State’s chancellor on July 1. Photo by Kimberely Blackburn

JONESBORO – A native Canadian and Montréal Canadians fan, Arkansas State University’s new chancellor aspired to become either a goaltender for the NHL or a Mountie before coming to Northeast Arkansas by way of Oklahoma.

Chancellor Kelly Damphousse said he planned to stay at his last position as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma until retirement, but an email sent by A-State President Chuck Welch prompted him to apply. When he first visited the campus, Damphousse saw the challenges but viewed A-State as a diamond in the rough. He said he can impact a community as a chancellor in a much different way than he could as a dean.

“It’s important for us to have a relationship with the people on our campus. Sometimes it’s easy for someone who in administration to get removed from the reality of the world that they’re serving,” Damphousse said.

Damphousse explained why he creates relationships:

Campus and Community

Damphousse said his main concern will always be the students, faculty and staff. He said he understands he can only see a few students per day due to his position. Yet faculty and staff members interact with hundreds.

Damphousse said he wants to use his position to help bridge the gap between campus and community. He said there seems to be a strain between the two due to past events. He said he believes strains occur due to a lack of communication, meaning people do not truly know each other.

To remedy this, Damphousse said he speaks to any community club that extends an invitation, as well as local merchants and companies to see how A-State can help their business. Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin said he and Damphousse agreed to work together on several projects.

Perrin said he hopes to help get the word out of what A-State offers the community. He said A-State remains a driving force in the Craighead County community.

Perrin said A-State can help employers by providing both new employees and education for existing workers. Perrin said he believes A-State and the Jonesboro community can achieve this by fine-tuning programs already on campus.

“I’ve always learned in business, you build and become strong on what you have. If you’ll continue to build and to redefine what you’ve got, you’ll be highly successful,” Perrin said.

Damphousse explained his plans to keep A-State movng forward:

United Way

Damphousse recently announced on his Facebook account that The United Way of Northeast Arkansas named him and his wife, Beth, as co-chairs of Arkansas State University’s United Way Campaign.

Nanette Heard, executive director of United Way of Northeast Arkansas, said the Damphousses will encourage the A-State community to designate part of their salary to help fund projects throughout the eight-county region.

UWNEA covers residents of Clay, Craighead, Cross, Greene, Jackson, Lawrence, Poinsett and Randolph counties. Heard said the projects include shelters, after-school programs and programs that help feed the hungry.

Damphousse said the community matters to him and to A-State. Because the campus and community will always be tied together, he said if one rises, they both rise. Damphousse said he and Beth plan to be around for the long run.

He mentioned an analogy about planting trees you never get to sit under. But Damphousse said he wants to sit under the trees he plants. He said he wants to see the efforts that come from the changes he implements.

This is why, Damphousse said, the motto “Every Red Wolf Counts” truly encompasses everyone.

“Every Red Wolf Counts. That means every student, every faculty member, every staff member, every alumnus, every member of the Jonesboro community,” Damphousse said. “I see them all as Red Wolves because we’re all tied together.”

He even let students name the family dog:

Listen to the entire interview: