4
October
Connecting hope to oppo
Sarasota Center of Hope inspi
By Brooke Turbyfill
Southern Spirit staff
Roughly 60,000 people call Sarasota,
Florida, home, and a million out-of-towners
visit every year because of the city’s incredible
beaches. While there’s a strong middle class
that supports the community, there are also
those who struggle to pay their bills due to the
high cost of housing, substance abuse, poor
health and other poverty-related issues.
The Salvation Army’s Center of Hope
entered the scene in 2003 to help meet
the income versus housing disparity and
related needs. Major Ethan Frizzell, area
commander, said homelessness is a rising
concern due to the high cost of housing, “We
have Main Street incomes with Wall Street
housing prices.” Together with Dr. David
Sutton, director of social services, and Glenda
Leonard, development director, and a host of
community support, they’re giving individuals
and families the resources they need to
overcome.
Sutton said the Center of Hope’s biggest
asset is its collaborative approach to services.
“We have multiple agencies that work with
us on our campus and outside the campus –
about 60 different organizations – so we have
a lot of buoyancy that’s come about as the
result of a strategic plan to be involved in the
community,” he said.
Two of the center’s most collaborative
programs are VIPER and Community
Recovery Program that address substance
abuse from multiple vantage points. Both
programs involve partnership of some kind,
with coordinated case management services
and strong community support, and have
had very high long-term success rates. Sutton
said they are both evidence-based programs
couched in faith-based settings, and that faith
has made all the difference. Supporting people
after they’ve gone through the programs and
having a strong alumni base help continue the
spiritual growth that is developed on campus.
The Center of Hope also has an off-campus
means of addressing the homelessness rise:
Hope in Progress. They take case management
to the streets, so those who haven’t made the
leap to come into the buildings on campus can
still receive some services once a month. About
170 people are signed up for it, and Sutton said
they identify how individuals are progressing
because of it.
“David and his team actually put case
managers to connect with people who are still
living on the street or who may not be ready
to come in – they loiter outside,” said Major
Frizzell. “One of the reasons I think we’ve
been successful in the Center of Hope is that
the focus is on the quality of life of people over
time.” Recognizing that not everyone who is
homeless needs a program like VIPER or CRP,