The Salvation Army of Augusta hosted its monthly Connection to Community event on Friday.
On the final Friday of each month, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., the Salvation Army holds its distribution and resource fair at the Salvation Army Center of Hope shelter at 1384 Greene St., a kind of one-stop pop up facility to provide support for those experiencing, or at the risk of being, homeless.
The church and nonprofit partners with several organizations to coordinate the fair, such as Project Refresh, which provides showers, GAP Ministries, the Richmond County Marshal’s Office and the Department of Public Health.
“The whole goal is to connect people that are in homelessness to resources and caseworkers,” said Maj. Jonathan Raymer with Salvation Army Augusta.
Through a coalition that includes Augusta’s Homeless Task Force, the Salvation Army conducts outreach to both those in need and those who can help via flyers, food and supply drives and other resources.
“We all have people that work in this space,” Raymer said. “We all know each other and we all kind of work together, and so we can invite as many as we can around the table to help.”
The fair is open from 2 – 4 p.m. because the shelter opens at 4 p.m., making it easier for people to come to get the help they need before resting there. People going through homelessness can come to the resource fair and get help clothing and other supplies, as well as connections to mental health, addiction recovery or housing assistance.
“We sit down with people… start at the basics,” said Angela Bakos, a member of the Homeless Task Force, and executive director of Resourced Augusta, which catalogues and regularly updates a list of community resources. “We get to choose where the light at the end of the tunnel is. Eventually you’re going to have to get to the end, but we can move it up and celebrate the victories along the way: do you have a birth certificate and ID? If not, let’s hook you up with GAP Ministries, and then you come back and tell me when you’ve completed that. So it’s easier steps, and more manageable.”
Salvation Army Augusta launched the Connection to Community initiative in February of this year, in part because many unhoused people were receiving clothes, food or other assistance as disparate, and often inconvenient, locations throughout the area, such as under the John C. Calhoun Expressway.
“It costs the city $1,500 to $1,700 a week to clean up under that bridge,” said Derek Dugan, development director with Salvation Army Augusta. “What happens is everybody brings their stuff and then they leave the clam shells that the food’s in; all the stuff that they don’t want gets used and scattered, and it’s a litter cleanup that they come out to every single week.”
Gathering in one spot, if for once a month, streamlines the process of getting help for those in homeless, as well as for those providing the help, said Dugan, who also notes that the efforts have not been fruitless.
“We are going to double the number of men, women, children and meals served,” he said. “We’re going to double the amount of people we place into permanent housing from last year.”
When the resource fair began in February, roughly 60 people came out to receive services. That number grew each month, peaking roughly at an average of about 120 people. Only six months into the year, the Salvation Army and its partners have been able to house some 95 people, compared to only 75 people total all of 2022.
“This is open to anybody who wants to come and serve,” said Dugan. “In a perfect world, we want this entire field full of people that want to help the homeless and so we’re all doing it together, so we can develop a plan to get them out of homelessness.
For more information contact Salvation Army Center of Hope at 706-826-7933, or contact Dugan at derek.dugan@uss.salvationarmy.org.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
