MARTINSVILLE — A place in Martinsville is stepping up to a challenge in Morgan County that has only gotten steeper since the end of the pandemic.
WellSpring provides emergency shelter for families who are experiencing homelessness.
According to the agency's executive director, Bob Goodrum, more than one-third of households in Morgan County are struggling to meet basic needs, including rent, food and utilities.
Goodrum leads a team of nine people at WellSpring, and by the year's end, they will have served more than 500 people across the county experiencing homelessness in some degree.
WellSpring's executive director believes a number of variables since the COVID-19 pandemic have presented tougher barriers to overcome for homeless citizens to get back on their feet.
Among those variables, fewer available housing units; rental costs have gone up; and there's been a tightening of restrictions landlords are putting on potential tenants.
WellSpring provided a service that saved Patricia Kinison and her two teen daughters, who needed to get out of a troubling situation, including a bad relationship.
Kinison and her daughters had spent nights sleeping in a car or moving from couch to couch.
A phone call changed things.
"At that particular day," Kinison recalls, "I had no car, I had no friends that had a couch. And it was going to be the first time me and my girls were going to sleep in a park somewhere. It was a very emotional moment and then I got that call. God is good."
WellSpring had an opening in one of its nine emergency shelter units and offered it to Kinison and her girls.
During the time in emergency housing, Kinison found a full-time job and WellSpring connected her to financial resources to aid with finding stable housing.
Now, Kinison and her daughters are moving into one of the organization's 13 permanent units.
WellSpring wants to help more people, like Kinison.
But the agency needs help itself.
"So, we're asking folks to be uncomfortable for one night," Goodrum said.
The agency is inviting the public, once again, to a "Bring Your Own Box" sleep-out event, which runs from 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17 to 6 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 18.
Participants will bring a cardboard box and a sleeping bag to spend a night outside the WellSpring headquarters facility, on Harrison Street in Martinsville, and a number of other locations, making calls or using social media to raise money.
"We've got a goal of raising $25,000 dollars this year," Goodrum said. "Which will help 25 families from homeless to housed over the course of the next year.
For more information on WellSpring, click here.
