MPACT Connections

Last month as part of our annual Missions and Evangelism retreat we heard a report from Tiffany Beadle, a Community Advocate from the Marshalltown Police and Community Team (MPACT). Currently two women serve as Community Advocates, intervening in non-emergent non-criminal police calls involving mental illness, family conflict, etc. You can read more about MPACT here: https://www.yss.org/mpact/.

We invited Tiffany to join us so we could learn more about the difficulties people face in Marshalltown and how we might help. She described responding to a wide variety of calls and simply trying to help in whatever ways possible. We asked about the most common calls they receive and she listed three categories: homelessness, family conflict, and juvenile delinquency.

In talking about homelessness, it was clear that the Community Advocates are frustrated by the lack of resources. They are able to bring people to shelters in Ames and Des Moines when beds are available, but they, of course, have limited space. They have a fund to buy hotel rooms for people on occasion, but this is limited as well. In our conversation we considered how we as a church might assist and the following ideas came up:

• In the summer, MPACT rents camping spots and will “rent” tents out to people for a short time. They could use more tents for this purpose. If you have a tent (or a sleeping bag) you don’t use much anymore, bring it to church or Youth and Shelter Services and it will get good use!

  
  

• One of the issues in town is people not knowing about the services that are available. We are discussing having a volunteer at the library for a few hours a week who would be able to share community resources with people. MPACT would train them and it would really just require a friendly face who is willing to talk to people for a few minutes. If you might be willing to do this, talk to Pastor Bryan or Pastor LaCosta.

  
  

• MPACT also sometimes gives out rolls of quarters for laundry and gift cards for gas or food. We will be doing a drive for gift cards and quarters in the spring to help, watch for more details.

  
  

I could write a lot more; we were very impressed with the work MPACT is doing and we are supporting their work from our Missions monies. I have also called MPACT a few times when I have encountered unhoused people who are looking for a place to stay. Tiffany welcomed these phone calls and encouraged us to call the police department non-emergency number anytime a Community Advocate would be helpful.

Pastor Bryan