GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — It’s right there.
It’s the last sentence in the Greensboro Urban Ministry’s mission statement:
“We believe our community is strongest when nonprofits, faith communities, government and neighbors work together.”
There’s tangible evidence that the urban ministry’s CEO, Brian Hahne, is putting that into action.
“We need each other,” he told me during my recent visit to the urban ministry offices/shelter/kitchen/food pantry off West Gate City Boulevard. “If we come together, we can solve these big challenges.”
His organization’s most recent “big challenge” happened in mid-October when the Interactive Resource Center (IRC) announced it was essentially overwhelmed and was cutting back its hours.
The nonprofit has served the city’s homeless since 2009 as mainly a day center (not a shelter) where clients could come to take classes, do laundry, get mail, meet with case managers or just socialize and was no longer going to be a 24/7 operation.
The challenge was during the extremely cold winter months, the IRC did serve as a “warming center” where the homeless could come in and warm up but not stay for extended periods of time like they could in a traditional shelter.