SEARCY — New Horizons International Ministries founders Robert and Sharon Underwood have 20 years of experience working with the homeless or near homeless, but after finding that some forms of help have immediate but temporary results, they decided to aim for a more long-term project.
Searcy’s Community Life Skills Outreach Center, located on New Horizon’s campus, is a soon-to-open residential facility that will teach career and life skills to homeless or near-homeless residents.
“They need a mind to work, a will to persevere and a heart to endure,” said Sharon Underwood, director of the outreach center.
The Community Life Skills Outreach Center will open in 60 to 90 days with room for six to eight residents. Residents will wake up between 6-8 a.m. each day and will have a scheduled time for meals and classes. Residents will also be expected to keep themselves and their rooms clean. The building will have 24/7 surveillance for the safety of all residents, Underwood said.
“Their environment normally is not very structured,” she said. “They need to realize that we all have boundaries, and we all have to be accountable. Responsibility begins with us, with each individual.”
Classes will take place on the church’s campus and will cover interview and job preparation, family relations, healthful eating and money management. Volunteers from the church, the Cooperative Extension Service and local hospitals will lead classes.
The center will include offices for counseling and a larger classroom for all residents to us, and the Underwoods will be the first set of house parents on the premises.
About three months ago, a 2,600-square-foot building was donated to house the outreach center’s residents. Once the facility opens, the Underwoods will accept applications and begin an interview process for potential residents. The center will allow a group of residents to stay for up to six months at a time — with each alternating group being all male or all female — until the site and program expand.
“We’re hoping that in that length of time, they will have a job and a security deposit for housing,” Sharon Underwood said.
In its early stages, the center won’t be able to accept individuals with certain circumstances, but it plans to help everyone in need.
“If we can’t put them here as a resident, we will try to help them by referring them to different agencies or locate them somewhere else, maybe in another town,” Underwood said. “We’re not equipped for the mentally ill or the severely disabled at this time. We’re not equipped to handle families at this time. We will try to get them help somewhere else.”
Some qualifications on the application, such as age, can be reconsidered, however.
“They’ll have to be 18 or older, and it will depend on each individual evaluation,” she said. “If they’re of a certain age and we know we could help them, then there’s no reason to turn them away.”
The Underwoods have never opened a facility of this nature before, but in the past few years, they have visited CitySquare, a Dallas development corporation that aims to fight poverty, and the Dream Center, a nonprofit that serves the homeless and other at-risk families and individuals in Phoenix.
The Community Life Skills Outreach Center is still in need of items such as laptops, bedroom furniture, linens and more. To gain support for the facility, the center held a community-awareness banquet April 9 with guest speaker Larry James, CEO of CitySquare. On April 7, ArkansasGives Day, the center received more than $8,000.
Sharon Underwood said the center will teach skills that are applicable to many paths in life.
“For some, success might be working at McDonald’s; some might go on to college and have degrees,” she said. “Some might be trained in the industries locally. Wherever they will go, they’ll take knowledge with them.”
Although the outreach center is on New Horizon property, the Underwoods don’t expect residents to be affiliated with any religion.
“We don’t want to force anyone to go to church with us, but we feel like as a group, we need to stay together,” Sharon said.
She said the center’s long-term goals include getting residents to a place where they can earn their own money and be self-sustaining adults.
“All humanity is God’s creation, and we just feel like anytime you’ve touched a life, you’ve made an impact in their life,” she said.
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.