Talk:Our Community Place

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We didn't just want to be a place for homeless people to be able to have a day shelter or whatever and serve people food. That's not all we did. It's just that was so overwhelming, it was hard to develop programming aligned with our vision, which is to bring people of different walks of life together.

— Ron Copeland

Artaxerxes (talk) 17:57, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

At O.C.P., we’ve had people sleeping on our property. They are technically not supposed to be doing that. We have nobody there to sanction it or keep it safe or monitored.

— Eric Olson-Getty, OCP director of development and administration

The OCP building does not meet the fire safety and building code required by the State of Virginia for accommodation spaces. It is not easy to turn away people who are in need, however as city leadership it is our responsibility to ensure people are safe. We cannot approve anyone who is in violation of the required safety and building codes. Harrisonburg is a fast-growing community, which mean our vulnerable populations are also growing. We have to come together as a community to address these issues.

— Mayor Deanna Reed

It is very hard on people to live on the streets. Having little access to bathrooms, showers, difficult places to sleep, cold, being able to find and keep a job, fears about losing your belongings, fears for your personal safety, getting to medical appointments, and so many other challenges are made so much worse by not having shelter.

Sam Nickels, executive director of Our Community Place

It’s really a resource that is going to be very helpful to us and not just our shelter, but our community. We plan on sharing this donation with Our Community Place and the Open Doors shelter. There’s a lot of people on our streets right now that need this type of assistance. It is hot during the day and there is no shelter for them during the day so this is going to be put to use very quickly.

Shannon Porter, Executive Director of Mercy House

I remember one woman who moved in, and then she came back to me and said ‘My mouth is sore because I haven’t smiled this much in forever.’

— Sam Nickles

“Unfortunately, most of our community members have barriers to housing that prevent them from accessing it through the conventional market” Tim Cummings, OCP Housing Specialist

Kabongo grew up with a little garden at his house in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he “used to always arrive to school dirty. My school uniform had dirt on it because I had worked in my little garden before heading off to class. I never loved to stay inside. I need to be outdoors.” He came to the U.S. at 14, playing American football well enough in high school to get an athletic scholarship to Shepherd University in West Virginia. Graduating there with an economics degree in 2013, he was on his way to a career with the World Bank when he encountered Bruce and Greg Butler, brothers who run a large farm in Inwood, West Virginia.

The Butler brothers said to Kabongo, “You were meant for something great, why are you here?” Working a one-year internship on their farm, Kabongo grew "dozens of fruits and vegetables and raise(d) beef cattle" and realized his “body, mind and spirit were being fed.” The "Jupiter" in the name of the garden he founded in Harrisonburg was meant to give others the feeling he found working the land.

References

Retrieved source

Whitehouse, Olivia (2023-07-24). "Shelter trying to help people get out of the heat". WHSV. Retrieved 2023-07-26. --Artaxerxes (talk) 18:10, 13 November 2023 (UTC)