The Present State of Needs in Our Quincy Community
The City of Quincy, Illinois is the largest, most prosperous and vitalized community in Adams County and the surrounding tri-state region. Quincy is “an essential source for nearly 250,000 area residents...for goods, services, medical, cultural, and employment needs. The economy is strong and new business continues to flourish amid the community’s dedicated work force.” With a full calendar for business and cultural events, a pro-active approach to community issues, and residents who genuinely care about the state of their community, we can legitimately claim the title of “the Gem City”.
Clearly, Quincy, IL is a great place to live and work. However, this is not to say that we, as a city and a region, are without challenges. Current criminal activity and gang-related issues, such as were recently reported in the Ninth and Lind Street area, have raised a number of community concerns. The homeless, ex-convicts looking for employment, underprivileged and neglected children and families of the area are all in need of additional services to support and assist them.
Data from Adams County Needs Assessments, 2001-2008
The United Way of Adams County conducted a community assessment in 2001 revealing at that time that approximately 36% of residents thought that not being able to acquire basic clothing and shoes was a “major or moderate problem” in the Quincy community; 40.9% of area residents said that not being able to afford housing or shelter was a “major or moderate problem”; and, 36.5% of area residents believed that being able to afford food was a “major or moderate problem” in Quincy. Additionally, 62% of area residents believed that under-employment or un-employment was a “major or moderate problem” in Quincy. Since this survey is now slightly dated, let’s “fast-forward” to 2007 and 2008.
In 2007, the Alliance for Building Community released a two-year study that had been conducted in order to “evaluate and identify current community needs and assets in an effort to create change and build upon existing relationships.” The assessment determined that the concerns of the greatest priority for the Quincy community could be grouped into the following social and economic issues:
Priority Social Issues: Priority Economic Issues:
Alcohol & Drug Abuse Unemployment/Underemployment
Teen Pregnancy/Affordability of Medical Care
Domestic Violence/Affordability of Child Care
Racial Discrimination/Affordability of Utilities
Lack of Diversity/Awareness/Intolerance
This assessment goes on to say that:
the greatest challenge for Adams County’s health and human services delivery system is addressing working poverty/economic self-sufficiency. Despite general prosperity, many employed county residents earn too little to afford the rising cost of living...Defining and understanding poverty and the number of individuals and families living at varying degrees of poverty is critical to addressing important issues in our community...In other words, income or hourly wages excludes them from certain benefits such as childcare subsidies and medical care that in turn “eat into” the resources on which they are excluded from benefits.
While this report is far more extensive, we have provided some highlights here that indicate some broad areas of need in our community.
Finally, in March 2008, the United Way of Adams County released a revised and updated community assessment for Adams County. While many of the findings point towards the very positive and excellent areas of life in Quincy, it also pointed out that the child abuse rate, the aggravated assault and battery arrest rate, the percentage of households earning an hourly wage needed to afford a two bedroom apartment at the fair market rate, the percentage of adults at risk for chronic drinking, and the percentage of adults at risk for acute/binge drinking were all worse than the average rates for the state of Illinois; in some cases, they were also below the national rates.
Currently, we are working to address some of these deep needs at the Quincy Soup Kitchen, the Quincy Transitional Work Program, and the Horizons Clothes Closet. However, far more important than the mere facts and percentages presented here, are the human lives involved.
A Day at the Soup Kitchen
Please allow me to share some stories with you. There is Joan – a white, middle-aged woman with mental disabilities. Joan is a hard worker and can follow basic instructions, but is unable to hold a permanent job because of her disabilities. There is Sam – an aging African American with cancer who is homeless and cannot afford any of his necessary cancer treatments. There are a number of ex-convicts here, too. Some of them have found employment through our worker’s transitional program – after guidance, mentoring and training they are now working at such well known Quincy businesses as John Wood Community College, the Day’s Inn and Knapheide. Their work performance at these locations is strong and some have even been promoted beyond their initial, entry-level positions. Meanwhile, others are in need of an exit from the neighborhood that tempts them back into old ways of life. Some may find that exit; others may not.
The stories are as varied as the unique individuals that come here. Some are tales of grace and triumph; most involve complicated plots and unexpected turns of events; almost all of them involve tragedy and struggle. But these are those whom some would deem “the least of them” in our world: without status, position or income, they are isolated at the bottom tier of society. But these are also those whom we love. These are people – unique and special individuals – who are so unique and special to us simply because God created them, and that gives them inherent value. Because God loves them, we want to love them. However, they need more than our pity or our passing acquaintance at the Soup Kitchen – they need real, practical solutions to some profound personal challenges. They need help.
The conversations we have with our neighbors at these continually full tables at the Quincy Soup Kitchen underscore the great needs of the disadvantaged and the destitute right here in the Quincy area.
We began this section of our web site by telling you the parts of some very real life stories. Now we ask you, how will their stories end?
A Bridge Between Social Services and Churches
We Are Better Together
When we cooperate, we are able to pool our resources, but we are also able to keep from duplicating services and ministries. There is an old African proverb which says that “when you run alone, you run fast, but when you run together, you run far”. We believe that faith and ministry are not sprint races – they are marathons. If we run together, then we can achieve a great deal more than any of us could accomplish by acting alone.
A Comprehensive Approach
Obviously, there are needs that must be addressed in our community, and something must be done to help assist individuals and families in a comprehensive and systemic way. We believe that a holistic approach to social services – in other words, addressing physical, material, psychological and spiritual needs – through the cooperative efforts of churches, community organizations and area residents will have a substantial and positive impact on the city and the region. In order to accomplish our ministry objectives, we aim to provide services in three key areas: (1) provision services to meet immediate needs; (2) transition services to assist individuals and families in breaking destructive patterns and beginning new, healthy ways of living; and, (3) prevention services to assist individuals and families before bad choices and consequential problems begin. We believe that such efforts will address the deepest human needs and deprivations in our area, while beginning to fulfill our obligations as stewards of God’s blessings and our mandate to care for “the least of these” (Matt. 25:40).
Some Other Unique Strengths & Advantages
- -We serve as a networking hub between churches seeking to cooperate together and an arena of cooperation between churches and social services providers
- The pro-active nature of our Quincy community
- The community-oriented concern and efforts of the people and churches of Quincy
- A comprehensive strategic plan defined by a central mission and purpose
- Measurable short-term and long-term goals combined with rigorous assessments and third-party accountability
- One of the few faith-based and inter-denominational organizations designed to meet the most substantial and dire human needs in the Quincy area
- Currently operating, in collaboration with the Salvation Army and 10 area churches, the only soup kitchen in Quincy open Monday thru Friday, every week
- Working to foster cooperation between several Quincy clothes closets
- Operating the only faith-based transitional work program in the Quincy area for recent ex-convicts
- One of the few “soup kitchen to communion” pipelines, seeking to address spiritual needs alongside of social service needs, and working with area churches to accomplish this goal