The Shalom Community Center Mission
The Shalom Community Center is a safe, daytime resource center for people experiencing homelessness and poverty.
Shalom Community Center is dedicated to relieving the plight of people experiencing homelessness and poverty in South Central Indiana. Since access to food, housing, education, and health and human services are fundamental human rights, we seek to meet these basic needs. As a nonprofit resource center, we deliver social services directly and in coalition with other agencies in a respectable, secure environment. We advocate for the most vulnerable among us and promote ties that empower people to develop their potential and to take responsibility for their own lives.
Shalom Now Offering Legal Aid Clinic
Shalom Community Center is pleased to announce the opening of Project HELP, a legal aid clinic created to serve individuals and families experiencing homelessness and poverty. Project HELP is a source of free legal aid in all areas of law, including issues related to employment, housing, and family law.
Soon after the launch of the Project HELP legal aid clinic, we discovered our guests had major needs due to Indiana’s recent privatization of Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) welfare benefits.
FSSA administers essential programs like food stamps, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Hoosier Healthwise healthcare. When the state privatized its system, handing management responsibilities over to a consortium led by IBM, people all over the state began to lose benefits. People experiencing these problems locally began showing up at Shalom for help.
For example, a couple with two young children came to the legal aid clinic seeking assistance. They had lost their food stamps and access to healthcare for their children. After some investigation, Shalom determined that the family had gotten lost in the FSSA transition because of their experience with homelessness. They had lost housing mere weeks prior to the privatization and, without a forwarding address, the family did not receive notification that they needed to go through a FSSA re-certification process. The family struggled for months without these basic resources. With assistance from Project HELP, the family has now had all of their benefits reinstated.
HELP clinic staff and volunteers have dedicated themselves to learning the intricacies of the new FSSA welfare system. When guests stop in seeking help with lost benefits, their cases are investigated and the HELP clinic is frequently able to resolve their problems and get their benefits restored.
Jacob Atz, Shalom’s legal aid coordinator explains, “A poorly planned benefits transition left many of our most vulnerable citizens without access to food and medical care. I am glad that Project HELP has been in a position to alleviate some of this burden.”
Though we have seen a large quantity of FSSA concerns, the clinic also helps guests deal with many other kinds of legal problems.
The Shalom legal aid clinic is open Fridays 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. in the Shalom Community Resource and Family Center at First Christian Church. It is funded by the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County.
Shalom Community Center Food Sponsor Program for Businesses
Food: A Key Element: The Shalom Food Program provides breakfast and lunch 5 days a week. Currently, over 4000 meals are served each month at an average cost of just $0.42 per meal! While Shalom receives direct donations of food from individuals and a small number of businesses, the majority of food is purchased from the Hoosier Hills Food Bank and local grocers. Both paid and volunteer staff participate in all elements of the food program which provides an important service to Bloomington’s hunger relief efforts.
What We are Asking: We are inviting local businesses to “sponsor” the
Shalom Community Center Food Program for one month of the year. A minimum donation of $1000.00 would defray most of the food-related expenses we incur in an average month.
What are the Benefits?: In addition to the satisfaction of knowing you have helped provide a needed service to those in our community, we offer the following benefits:
* A framed Food Sponsorship Certificate to display in your business
* Recognition on this Web site
* Recognition in Shalom publications such as the Annual Report, Safety Net Newspaper, and in printed materials distributed at Shalom events.
* Your business logo will be featured on the Web site during your sponsorship month.
How does your business become a food sponsor? Simply contact John Miller, Development Chair at 856-7007, or Joel Rekas, Executive Director at 334-5728 or click on the following link to print the food sponsor form and mail it to Shalom Community Center, P.O. Box 451, Bloomington, IN 47402-0451. Food Sponsor Form (MS Word format)
Special thanks to First United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church, and Trinity Episcopal Church for their extreme generosity in donating such wonderful spaces to our organization!!! Thanks to Crescent Donut, the Bakehouse, Bloomington Bagel Company, Encore Cafe, Bloomingfoods, and Hoosier Hills Food Bank for all of your wonderful food donations!
Shalom Community Center, 219 East Fourth Street, P.O. Box 451,
Bloomington, Indiana 47402-0451, admin@shalomcommunitycenter.org
