By Brett Hetherington*

January brought single-digit temperatures to the Ohio Valley, increasing community members’ needs for warm clothes and shelter. Once again, the Urban Mission located in Steubenville, Ohio answered the call, this time with a new executive director – the Rev. Dr. Kimberly Arbaugh.

“Starting in the middle of January when it was negative 12 was just crazy,” she said. “We were maxed out on occupancy and people were pounding on the doors looking for a place to stay.”

One month into her new appointment, after serving Carrollton First UMC for more than a decade, Arbaugh invited me to spend a day with her at the Urban Mission. She shared that no two days are alike, and each day brings unique challenges and blessings.

“The biggest adjustment is figuring out who does what because there are so many moving parts. But it has been going well. The community has been really good,” Arbaugh said. “One of the things I love is that we have people who have master’s degrees helping and we have people who have served six or eight years in prison helping. We have people who are from all walks of life involved. There really is that opportunity to truly work with everyone.”

Food Pantry

Our first stop was the Fresh Market, the Urban Mission’s food pantry. Open five days a week, clients are invited to grab a shopping cart and make their way down aisles, picking and choosing from canned goods, bakery items, produce and more to take home at no cost.

“We set it up this way to kind of give them that dignity of shopping for themselves, so instead of us just giving them a bag of groceries they can pick and choose what they want,” said Arbaugh.

Food for Fresh Market is largely provided through the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. There are also additional donations from local retailers such as Kroger, the Downtown Bakery, and longtime partner Walmart. Fresh Market is preparing to receive up to four pallets of ham to distribute to families in time for Easter meal preparations!

Each month Fresh Market serves approximately 3,000 families from all over the region.

“Most of our clients are local, but we do service Carroll, Harrison, Belmont, Jefferson counties in Ohio and then Brooke and Hancock counties in West Virginia,” shared Arbaugh.

Fresh Market director Kitty Lancaster added, “We get new families every day. I don’t know what they would do if we weren’t here with the prices of food today.”

Shelters

Next on the tour, we visited shelters operated by the Urban Mission. There are three different shelters for individuals experiencing homelessness, meeting three unique needs.

Martha Manor is a shelter for women and children. There are 16 rooms inside this renovated nursing home. On the day of our visit, there were 12 guests residing in the manor.

“We help them find employment, we provide them with resources through public housing, Section 8, those sorts of things, whatever we can help them to get successfully housed and employed. We also help them find resources as well for recovery,” offered Amanda Moore, manager of the Martha Manor shelter. She shared that Urban Mission will also provide women with clothing vouchers to use at the Urban Thrift store because a lot of the time women arrive at the shelter having lost everything.

The Men’s Dorm is set aside for providing housing to men. At the time of this visit there were 31 visitors residing in the building that can hold up to 40 guests. The dorm is equipped with a kitchen, dining area and bunkhouse-style sleeping quarters. The Mission has also converted a chapel into a space for older gentlemen who need a little more room to get around.

“We noticed a trend in the last year that we have been getting a lot more elderly people in here,” shared Sandi Wyatt, Men’s Dorm Shelter Manager.

Both shelters have meals prepared each day using supplies from the Fresh Market.

The third shelter we visited is Hutton House, apartment style housing designed for families to live together. There are four units in the building, which allow families who are experiencing homelessness for any reason to remain together and retain some semblance of their normal life.

“They can move around a bit differently there and they can utilize the food pantry when they’re there,” shared Alexis White.

All the shelters are meant to be temporary with a targeted time of 30 days spent in the shelter. Each shelter also is in constant need of supplies and volunteers to make them run smoothly.

“It’s sad that we have to have these services, but it’s a blessing that we are able to offer these services,” said Arbaugh.

Urban Thrift

Our final stop on the tour was in a small plaza owned by the Urban Mission. Though much of the plaza is under renovation for future ministry use, and there are a couple of tenants who rent space for their stores, the centerpiece of the plaza is Urban Thrift the Urban Mission’s thrift store. The store does what most thrift stores do: take gently used donated items and sell them at prices that are affordable for people in the community.

“The amazing thing about our thrift store is all of our shirts are the same prices, all of our pants are the same prices, so it’s pretty evenly consistent. We want to be able to pay our expenses, but that’s not what we are doing we are trying to provide a service to the community where they can get decent clothes, decent items without breaking the bank,” said Arbaugh.

The store functions as any other business would, with cash changing hands in exchange for goods, but according to store manager Tiffany Beckwith there is more to the store than meets the eye.

“Our customers have become our friends and our family. We’ve just created a safe space and when people come, they enjoy being here. It’s kind of like what I like to think of as the church in action because people come in, we pray for people, and people just sit in the chairs and talk, share prayer requests. It’s the church in action,” Beckwith said.

A newer addition to Urban Thrift is the furniture room which allows the store to sell chairs, couches, beds and other larger items that someone in the community might need in their home for a price that is fair.

Additional Ministries

Another of the many services provided by the Urban Mission is a new grant-funded leadership training program. The Urban Mission LIFT (Leadership Initiative Focused Training) Program is designed to take volunteers who are interested in taking their leadership skills to the next level through a six-week course of classes. Participants are also paired with mentors in fields in which they are interested. “This program is all about helping people learn what it means to be a leader and serve in a leadership capacity,” said Beckwith.

Health is a vital concern for the Urban Mission. For instance, during Minority Health Month the Mission will host multiple events and outreach opportunities within the community.

“State and local observances of MHM are funded and supported by the Ohio Commission on Minority Health (OCMH) based in Columbus. With funding and support from the OCMH, the Urban Mission’s Community Development branch, also known as NCDC (the Neighborhood Community Development Center) hosts a variety of health education and promotion activities throughout the month of April,” shared Lytle.

Opportunities include mammogram screenings, health fair, free prostate screenings, and a four-part video series featuring local breast and prostate cancer survivors sharing their stories.

Arbaugh’s calling to the Urban Mission is not one that she takes lightly. Much of what the Urban Mission uses in its ministry is donated and the programs are mostly staffed by volunteers. There is a standing call for anyone who is willing to help to join them in this mission to improve the lives of the people they serve. And they can always use more laundry detergent in the shelters.

One month into her new appointment at the Urban Mission, Arbaugh has already been blessed to see the unique landscape of ministry before her and her volunteers.

“It has gone well. Huge difference from pulpit ministry but it has been good. Talk about seeing the Gospel come alive when you are literally feeding and clothing, those sort of things. You see the Gospel come alive.”

The Conference Communications team would like to share other stories that highlight ways that each of us is answering the call of Bishop Hee-Soo Jung to reach out to our communities in creative ways. Please e-mail your ministry story to EOC Executive Director of Communications Rick Wolcott at wolcott@eocumc.com.

* Brett Hetherington is the Communications specialist for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.