Services for Churches - Grants Ministry
Mission Central: A Story of Change in Hurst
“We had to identify root causes of the growing needs in our community and develop a radically different approach to addressing them in order to promote lasting change.”
This is a story of change – individual and organizational change, of how one leader’s deepening understanding of her own story has led to transformational, paradigm-shifting change in the stories of the organization and the people they serve.
Emily Youngberg is executive director of Mission Central, a community outreach agency that has provided food, clothing, and emergency financial aid to the neediest members of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford community for over 13 years.
“I began to realize that year after year we were offering emergency assistance to many of the same families. And, of even greater concern to me personally, I didn’t really know them. God kept putting people here. I wanted – I needed – to form relationships with them,” Youngberg observed.
Youngberg’s emerging sense of purpose spilled over into the organization she leads. Around three years ago, Mission Central staff and board members looked closely at the current needs of their community – which includes over 400 homeless families – and began talking about how they could use their resources most effectively to create the greatest impact on those needs.
Out of that discernment grew the Family Opportunities program designed to improve the lives of low-income parents and their children who We had to identify root causes of the growing needs in our community and develop a radically different approach to addressing them in order to promote lasting changeare homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Family assessments, comprehensive goal setting, long-term case management and creative financial assistance help families achieve or return to self-sufficiency.
“We began to view ‘helping’ differently. We had to identify root causes of the growing needs in our community and develop a radically different approach to addressing them in order to promote lasting change,” Youngberg continued.
Youngberg credits First UMC Hurst, the organization’s founder and largest source of funding and volunteers, Mission Central’s Board of Directors, and the church’s Senior Pastor Mike McKee, for their willingness to imagine new possibilities. She also values the financial grant support and conversation partners from the Texas Methodist Foundation.
“It was obvious we had to stop doing what we had always done if we wanted different results,” said Youngberg.
The different perspective she sought for herself and for Mission Central is also key to lasting change for their clients.
“By the time we see them, these parents are disheartened. They have suffered not just one setback but many, and the road to recovery is littered with so many barriers, they just can’t see a way forward. Sometimes all that is needed is a different vision than negativity,” Youngberg explained.
One family’s story illustrates the power of seeing a new way and someone to help you navigate it. Laura (named changed) and her daughter were living with a family member with a history of sexual misconduct. She knew the living situation was untenable, especially for her daughter, but she had no means to move to safe housing. Physical and emotional wounds from domestic violence left her feeling defenseless, inferior, and isolated.
Referred by a social worker in the HEB school district, Laura found both the practical and spiritual resources she needed to help her overcome these obstacles. Melody Wilson, Director of Family Services, developed a case plan for Sherry and found resources to help her deal with past abuse: counseling at Safe Haven for emotional support and dental services through Operation Return a Smile to repair the ravages of physical abuse.
“I am so proud of Laura’s progress,” praised Wilson. “She is highly motivated and takes advantage of everything we have to offer. She found a job, took action to protect her child, and is working to complete her GED. Her eagerness to learn has literally blossomed.”
Laura reciprocates: “Without Melody, I don’t know if I would have found the self-confidence to even see options, much less act on them. Melody, Emily, LaMont (Director of Adult Basic Education) are always here for me, my rock, my stability. I have friends, good friends.”
“They taught me that if I want to continue to provide for my daughter and not fall back into a destructive cycle – I have to keep learning; I have to be happy; I have to be whole.”
Whether we think about it or not, each and every day we live in, with, and among stories. They give us alternative ways of seeing. And that new way of seeing allows us to discover a new way to live, not through escape or denial, but by deepening our understanding of what William Faulkner called the “eternal verities.” Stories bring us closer to life. The intersecting stories of Emily Youngberg, Mission Central, and clients like Laura show the freedom to remake ourselves, to create a world in which the truest parts of our lives and the lives of others find a place to take root, grow strong, and blossom.
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