For People in Need, LOVE INC. Has Way of Getting to Heart of Problem
One year ago Diana Huckaba was in almost constant pain--physical and mental.
A spinal defect resulting from childhood scoliosis and worsened by a later auto accident kept the Allendale, Mich., woman in bed all day, “thinking nobody cared.” A single mother, she scraped by on Social Security disability checks.
Then her furnace broke.
“I had no money and didn’t know where to turn,” says Huckaba, 37. “But as it turned out, that furnace breaking was the turning point in my life.”
When Huckaba called the heating company, she ended up speaking to the local program director of LOVE INC. Before she knew it, she had a new furnace. Soon after, she had a new outlook on life.
In cases like these, LOVE INC. provides the missing link, says Virgil Gulker, founder of the nationwide church services network.
Gulker began the first LOVE INC. program in this southwest Michigan city in 1981 while working for a church-sponsored community agency.
He was frustrated that the vast resources of area churches, mainly their volunteers, were not being tapped to help meet the community’s needs.
Duplicated Services
Gulker saw the waste created by agencies and private organizations that duplicated services because they lacked a clear idea of what others did.
He was frustrated by the “holiday food basket syndrome,” the tendency by churches to provide groceries at Thanksgiving or a coat at Christmas, while ignoring deep-seated problems faced daily by members of the community.
Guided by the belief that a church’s resources, if organized effectively, could meet almost every need of a community, Gulker set out to create LOVE INC., local clearinghouses that would keep inventories of services provided in a community and link those in need with the agency or group most able to help. Where a need couldn’t be met by an existing group, LOVE INC. would tap the resources of the church.
Since its inception, LOVE INC. has expanded to 50 local programs in 14 states, linking 1,300 churches of 50 denominations and meeting about 12,000 individual needs each month, Gulker says.
What sets LOVE INC. apart from other church-sponsored organizations is that it is strictly a clearinghouse and referral service. Its volunteers do not provide any direct assistance. That’s left up to the agencies or churches to which the person in need is referred.
“We have a saying here: ‘We will not knowingly help anyone,’ ” Gulker says. “That sounds awful, but it’s the only way a program like this can work.”
If a person has a need that a government or private agency is not equipped to meet, or if the person does not meet specific eligibility requirements, a participating neighborhood church is called upon to help.
One of LOVE INC.’s most important responsibilities, Gulker says, is to ensure that community services provided are not duplicated.
“In one community, clothing was provided so readily and without a governing policy, that some families stopped doing their laundry,” he says. “When their clothes would get dirty, they’d throw them out and get more.
“Through our failure to communicate, as agencies and church representatives, we have created that dependency. We have said to these people: ‘There’s no need to be personally responsible for your own situation, we will take care of that for you.’ ”
‘Self-Help’ Conditions
To end the chronic dependency cycle, LOVE INC. encourages churches to attach “self-help” conditions to assistance so the individual can become self-sufficient.
For example, a person who continually asks a church to help meet rent payments would be required to improve budgeting skills--with the help of a church volunteer.
Other self-help conditions include academic or vocational training, personal counseling or help with parenting, shopping or cooking--all of which are provided by church volunteers.
All participating churches are asked to survey their volunteers to find out what type of service each individual can best provide. A physician may volunteer to help a sick child whose mother doesn’t qualify for emergency medical aid, while an auto mechanic may be able to donate a few hours to fix the car of a struggling family.
When someone in need contacts a LOVE INC. office, program directors first conduct a background check to weed out roving panhandlers. If the need is legitimate, it is then funneled to the appropriate government agency or existing help group, such as the Salvation Army.
In Diana Huckaba’s case, LOVE INC. referred her to a little-known government program, which provided a new furnace.
Now, on the days when she is feeling healthy enough, she works as a volunteer at the local LOVE INC. office.
“Since getting involved in the program, the entire community has reached out to embrace me,” says Huckaba, who remarried in December. “My entire life has changed. LOVE INC. has given me back my dignity.”
Gulker says government agencies are best able to deal with specialized needs, such as spouse abuse or mental illness. But as federal funds dry up, church assistance becomes essential.
LOVE INC., which got a boost in November when it entered a partnership with the international relief agency World Vision, wants to have at least one program established in each state within 10 years.
In Fresno, Calif., more than 2,200 members from a total of 50 area churches have volunteered to help with LOVE INC. cases since the chapter opened two years ago.
Thirty-three local government agencies also are part of the chapter’s network.
“All the agencies have responded very favorably. They feel that the church is an untapped resource and they’re at the breaking point,” says program director Larry Waddell.
