STARKVILLE — Most people are familiar with Starkville Strong, the nonprofit which began as a Facebook group and has evolved into one of the most impactful in Oktibbeha County.
That growth is continuing with the addition of a new intake office, a central space that serves to conduct interviews and meetings with potential and existing clients. The office is located in Five Horizons Health Services, 900 Stark Road.
“It’s always been a goal of ours (to establish an office) and just by happenstance or luck, I’m not sure, (we did),” said Brandi Herrington, executive director for Starkville Strong. “Five Horizons has to partner with community members and organizations that do work similar to or meet the needs of a similar demographic as Five Horizons. So, as part of that partnership, they were able to offer a couple of spaces.”
Starkville Strong provides food pantries and assistance, rental assistance and helps clients apply for jobs. It also works with other area nonprofits to steer clients to other needed resources.
The partnership is particularly beneficial as many of the two organizations’ clients overlap.
“Both Starkville Strong and us at Five Horizons are pieces to the same puzzle of improving lives and enhancing the overall ability of each person to maximize themselves,” said Jamil Dawson, COO for Five Horizons. “For us at Five Horizons, we are a health care organization primarily focusing on internal health and medication and disease prevention, things like that. But the same things that folks we work with have as issues and barriers that prevent them from being healthy, are things that Starkville Strong focuses on and specializes in, mainly homelessness as well as food insecurity. Because of that, it really is a perfect fit.”
Starkville Strong has been up and running in the new space since late April. Having a central location helps the group establish itself further within the community and help more people.
Before partnering with Five Horizons, Starkville Strong representatives met with residents seeking its services at various locations.
Since setting up at Five Horizons, the group now sees 10 to 15 new intakes a week.
“It sort of cuts down on the confusion,” Herrington said. “The overflow pantry, where we keep all of the food for the free little pantries and the food that we keep for our clients, still stays at Dunkington (downtown). This is a very recognized space for drop offs and donations and getting Starkville Strong info. But it wasn’t a space where we could have some privacy for our clients. What we were doing was partnering with the library and the Discovery Center and using their space. Ultimately, our goal was to have our very own private space, with no listening ears, where we could provide better trust with our clients.”
Starkville Strong operates on an individual program system, where clients are given instructions and goals to reach. Herrington said this approach is to offer a more complete solution instead of a temporary one such as just giving them food.
“(Hunger) really is the top layer of need for the people that we serve,” Herrington said. “Once you feed them, they are still struggling with other things such as housing instability, coping mechanisms, personal health, mental health, all kinds of things. So, if those particular needs aren’t being met, and there’s no support system beyond just food, we will stay in a state of reactivity to the issues. We will always be putting bandaids on them. Our approach is a holistic one. We treat the whole person. We see them, where they are, we learn about their background. We ask them what their dreams and their hopes are, and we devise a plan, step-by-step, to try and help them become stable and thrive beyond that.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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