(bright music) - PNC is proud to support "Business Forward," where community leaders discuss the issues confronting business in Central Illinois.

(bright music) (bright music continues) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George.

Joining me tonight from Peoria Rescue Ministries, John Rocke, you're the executive director.

And from Safe Families for Children, Jeanna Oedewalt.

You're the director too.

- Yes.

- Well, thank you both for coming on.

Welcome.

- Thank you.

- Thanks so much for having us, Matt.

- Well, I really love both of your organizations.

The Impact, and this is really the third week in a row we're talking about Impact, because if you think about it, both of you run, even though they're nonprofits they're businesses.

- That's for sure.

- It's a business.

And in that, there's coordination, there's keeping talent, there's hiring, there's managing dollars, having that fiduciary responsibility when you collect dollars, whatever it may be.

So everything involved but what I like to say all the time is if you're selling something in a for-profit which you've, John, you've been part of- - Sure.

- A for-profit business with your meat company and you sit there and if you don't sell enough steak, you still go home at night.

And in the business of nonprofit it's about changing lives and saving lives.

And that is the impact there.

It could mean up to death.

- Yeah.

- And I think that is the bottom line when it comes down to it.

So let's start with you, John, and talk about Peoria Rescue Ministries.

And I know you do many things there.

- Sure.

- But what do you do?

Explain to our viewers.

- Yeah, that's great.

I think it's summed up mostly in our mission.

You know, our mission is to create pathways out of poverty through Jesus with our neighbors in need.

And there's some key important words in that.

Poverty is the first starting point.

We define poverty a little bit differently.

We say that poverty is not just a lack of material things.

It's broken us in the four fundamental relationships of life, our relationship with God, our relationship with ourself, with others, and with the rest of creation.

And so when you look at it like that, it changes the dynamic, right?

First of all, we realize kind of we're all poor at some level.

We have- - That's true.

- Experienced poverty, but then it's really trying to create pathways out of poverty.

I think most people in Peoria probably think of us just as the homeless shelter.

But really in the last several years, five years, we've really been focusing much more away from crisis relief to developmental transformation.

And that's really making the impact.

And in the last, there's just couple numbers.

In the last four years, we've helped place 571 men and women in employment and over 620 we've helped locate permanent housing for so that's just- - It's astounding.

- Yeah, it is.

I mean, and I think that's what people don't realize that we've moved from being a homeless shelter to a center of hope and healing.

- Yeah.

And if you think about it though sometimes people don't know need to know everything, right?

- Correct.

- And so you're, like many other nonprofits, you're the hidden gem in the community.

- Right, there is a lot of 'em.

You're right.

- There's a lot of 'em.

And so when you're talking about that transformation, you're talking about men and women who have gone through abuse or addiction.

- Yeah.

- Or homelessness or whatever it may be, right?

- Right.

Tragedy, trauma.

Yeah.

- That's great.

That is great.

So, Jeanna.

- Yeah.

- Safe Families.

- Yes.

- I know this program and you do great work but why don't you give us a little overview of what you do.

- Yeah.

- Our mission is simply this to keep children safe and families together.

We are working a lot with families and crisis which could look a lot of different ways.

That could mean homelessness, that could mean a hospitalization of some sort, some sort of treatment that's needed which impacts their ability to care for their children.

So we wrap around support through compassionate volunteers who walk alongside the parent and the children until the crisis is stabilized.

- Yeah.

I had the honor to work with you at Children's Home.

- Yes.

- And I knew, you know how you just meet certain people and you just know the impact.

And I knew you were going to have some hand in changing lives for the rest of your life.

And I knew that from the get-go.

And so I think you're in a great spot right now.

But let's take it a step further.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

I'm just gonna use an example and you tell me if I'm off.

- Okay.

- All right.

A mother is a single mother.

She has a three-year-old baby boy.

She's lost her job.

She has no place to stay.

She's gone through an abusive situation, and she has had it.

The baby hasn't eaten, no clothes.

Where is she gonna sleep tonight?

Where do you come in?

- Yeah, in a lot of different angles we could.

- Yes.

- First primarily would be we would care for that little boy in a host family situation.

So this host family, no compensation, volunteer, just out of the compassion of their hearts to love those in their community.

And then we would also wrap around support to the mom.

So while we can't provide a housing arrangement for moms specifically, we can network with our referral partners in the area and get her connected to those resources that are gonna help her get out of that crisis situation.

- Yeah, so I was kind of leading you to that.

- Yeah.

- Because it's one of my most important, I think things when it comes to nonprofit is people just really don't realize that there is a network of collaboration.

So in this situation, you could call the center for prevention of Abuse.

- Yes.

- Or you could call Salvation Army, or even Red Cross, or there's just so many different - Esther House - Peoria Rescue Ministries.

- Exactly.

- Yeah.

- And you could call so many different places but you know, people, I think one thing that this community sometimes doesn't understand, and I think that's not fair that this community, I think it's every community.

I think sometimes people don't realize what's right underneath their nose.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, it's true.

- They really don't.

And I think this is interesting, but okay let's keep with the story.

- Yeah.

- All right?

Now mom gets stabilized and one of the groups in town like Peoria Rescue Ministries says, guess what?

We're gonna help you get a job.

- Hmm.

- And now you have a job.

And then another group says we're gonna help you get an apartment, and now she can get her baby back.

So it's not a thing to where she loses her baby forever and it's in the system so to speak, and foster care, and then it's volunteers.

- Yeah.

- That are compassionate and passionate.

- Um-hum.

- Yeah.

- And that's what it is.

Am I right?

- That's right.

And the beautiful part of that oftentimes that relationship with the host family and the other volunteers that are walking alongside that mom in this situation, that relationship continues on beyond the time that we help.

So it's creating extended like family support, reducing the social isolation that so many of these families are facing.

- Right.

- And it just carries out long-term ripple effects.

- And that's the key, I think, to both of your businesses is person comes in, you just don't say, okay, we did it.

Boom, you're done.

- No.

- It does not work.

- No.

- No.

- And it especially doesn't work for kids.

But I guess when you get older too, as you're going into adulthood, the circumstances are obviously different, but I don't it's just- - The need for relationship and the support system is almost greater because at least children, I think even as a society, even the state- - [Matt] We'll take care of 'em more.

- Exactly.

- But if you're an adult and you fall in that crack, unless you have somebody to come alongside and help it, and just to tell you we're actually partnering right now.

So at our women's facility at Esther House, we don't have children there, simply because most of the women that we work with are either single, they are or they've lost their kids at that point and they need to focus kinda on themselves.

But we just recently had a young lady who came in who was pregnant.

She was about eight months pregnant, but needed the help.

And so when that baby was born Jeanna's team placed that little one- - Oh my.

- And soon to be that mom's about to graduate, and she'll, they'll be reunited.

And so - That's awesome.

- Your example is happening in real time, real world.

- Well, what I didn't tell you is that example was a true story.

- Awesome.

- That that happened.

I don't know if you were a part of it back at Children's Home, but that actually happened.

- That's great.

- And I sat there and this person came to our front door and I answered the door, my office is right next to it or was right next to it, and the woman was in crisis.

And there's nothing, we're in the business to take care of people.

- Right.

- Right?

So you go into action, you drop what you're doing, strategy and finance and everything else is not important right now.

- That's right.

- Right?

- Yeah.

- Right now it' this, - you know, you mentioned earlier the combination that there's a lot of business.

I often say this is, at least at Peoria Rescue Ministries we call it busentree because it is a lot of business, budgets, you know, staff, 76 staff members, all the things that go along with it.

But it's heart.

You drop whatever you're doing and take care of somebody.

So.

- Yeah.

- That's great.

- Yeah.

So how many people do you have that are involved with Safe Families that work there?

Or is it all besides you?

Do you have how many employees?

- Yeah, we have two.

looking to hire.

- Amazing.

- That is amazing.

Because, am I right in saying that you have placed hundreds 3 or 400 kids in a short period of time?

I think you're in your eighth year, seventh or eighth year.

- Yeah, we launched in Peoria in 2015.

- So this story that I told you happened in 16.

- Okay.

- So this was in the infancy of what you're doing.

That is great.

- Yeah.

It's volunteer-driven.

I mean, the ministry would not exist without our volunteers.

As staff we're there to guide and direct and do some referral.

I mean, there's obviously some sides that staff needs to take care of, but it's volunteer-driven.

It wouldn't exist without our incredible team.

- You know, it's funny, Jeanna and John.

John, you know this better than anybody.

When you're in the position that you're in, you have five FTEs just under your head alone.

You know, you've got your hand in so many different things.

And Jeanna, two employees to do what you're doing is crazy.

- [John] It is.

- It is crazy.

- Awesome.

- So if you had four, can you double that impact?

I'm not being silly.

I'm- - Yeah.

Yeah.

- Well that's interesting.

So the church's involved, churches are involved, right?

- Yeah.

- And so I'm guessing the members of various churches come in and those are the volunteers that say open the doors and you can come into our family.

- Yeah.

So part of staff's job is to partner with local churches and then the local churches bring on those volunteers.

- Yeah.

And there's a vetting process in that, obviously.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And everything else.

That is so fun.

So John, how long has Peoria Rescue Ministries been around?

- Since 1955, if you can believe that.

- Wow.

- So again, coming up on whatever that is, almost 70 years.

- [Matt] That's awesome.

- And, you know, I love just this the heart that the Ministry of Safe Families really I love telling the story of how it got started.

Most people don't know, but two women went up to Chicago, Illinois and saw the famous Pacific Garden Rescue Mission.

- [Matt] Okay.

- And came back and began serving donuts and coffee and just sharing the love of God with homeless men.

And that's what was the birth about a, I think about a year later they incorporated and the churches came around them and actually began the ministry as a organization.

But it just started out of that heart of someone just saying there's a need and how can we step into it?

And so, even though it's grown dramatically, I think that's still the, you know, the culture and the ethos of it is just caring for people and that they don't and that's why going even back to our mission statement it's not about doing something for somebody or to something it's doing something with someone, you know, bringing them it's- - The only way it works.

- Into the community and restoring those relationships.

- Yeah.

- And building relationships that can support and encourage.

- Well, let's talk about Impact Central Illinois because you were, you know, when you get up on stage and receive a grant you're looking at 315 strong smart women, right?

Right?

- Yeah.

- And we talked earlier, but you, they're already hooked.

They already read the grant.

- Sure.

- They've gone through the process.

I think you went through the process last year, didn't receive something.

- Right.

- Got to the final four, let's say, or whatever it may be, semis.

And you go forward again.

What was the scope?

What's the scope of the grant you received?

- Yeah, so for us, we are ask, our grant we received is for our new reclaimed Center for Work Readiness.

And what that is gonna be, we're so excited, we're just gonna be launching a new line of, so many people know I'll back up.

Many people know that for years and years we've partnered with Caterpillar, we received their wood waste and we recycle pallets and we do mulch.

But now we're gonna take some of that wood that can't be made into pallets, and it's too good for mulch.

And we're gonna begin a line of decor items, either functional furniture or decor home items under the reclaimed brand.

And it's gonna tell the story we say of the lives and the wood that have been rejected by many, but reclaimed by God.

- [Matt] Oh my goodness.

- And so we're really excited and we- - I just got chills.

That's cool.

- Yeah.

It's gonna be awesome.

We took our what it was our thrift store, 15,000 square foot, we're remodeling that, renovating that into a production center.

- [Matt] Okay.

- Where, and for us, the real goal of that is a work readiness training opportunity for our students, but then it's housed in a business venture that can support itself.

- Well, I mean, that's, my next question is gonna be sustainability, but you've got it right there.

- Exactly.

- It's built in.

- Yes.

- That is so cool.

- So that's what the project was for.

And we just, it's really neat to see men and women engage in that kind of work.

It's creative, it's, you know it's doing something, it's building something.

There's just a lot of value.

And so we think we get to tell a story and we hope to see these products literally, you know, across the country, selling under the reclaimed brand and tell that story.

- So, man, that is really cool.

- So yeah, we're excited, really excited about that and thankful that a organization like Impact exists because as you know, in our organizations $100,000 grant is significant, right?

That makes a big deal.

- It's huge.

- To be able to do.

And some of these projects you can't do without that kind of support.

And so, yeah, we're thankful.

- And as you scale, you know, again, we go back to it being a business, right?

- Right.

- As you scale this business, it has to, there has to be some way to sustain it.

And as you grow and get the word out there, I'm gonna have you back on when you get this, when you get this up and running, come back on and we'll bring somebody that's part of it.

- Yeah.

- Because I love the idea was the number you gave me at the beginning of the show, 571, was that?

- 571 men and women, and just the last four years that we've placed him into employment.

- Now think about that.

- This is, well, and here's the impact of that and this is part of what we talked about in our grant application.

The estimate for homelessness in the US, done by the government, is that it costs about $40,000 per person on an annual basis.

So if you take that and convert that into somebody who's now contributing.

- Yeah.

- Well, that's, that's a massive impact on our, it's a hidden impact.

- Yeah.

- You don't get to see that but it really is a massive impact on our community.

- I just read a book, Malcolm, I can't even think of the author but he was talking about the homeless issues.

That there was a man who was homeless for 40 years and they put a dollar amount to it.

- Oh.

- And could you imagine if you found that person a job and actually- - Right.

- Bought 'em a house, how you can actually change someone's life.

- Right.

- It's just.

Okay, I could go on and on about that.

So what was the scope of yours?

- Yeah, so we received 25,000 for recruitment efforts.

Last year, the chapter did about 80 hostings.

And in 2023 from January to present we've done over 80.

So we are well on our way to doubling our referrals for this year.

And so we have a gap of needing more host families in volunteers.

- So people that are watching this show.

- Yeah.

- You have a gap.

- We have a gap.

We have a need.

So not soliciting, but you have a gap.

- Yeah.

- Well, I'm proud of you.

I really am.

I think the impact that you have, I don't even know if Safe Families knows where it's going yet, because I think it could grow so much.

I know this for a fact, I know homelessness we had the homeless contracts for youth.

I know behavioral health, I know all these different programs, residential, obviously.

But the piece that you're filling is the most crucial piece of what we did at Children's Home.

It's crucial.

So, good job.

- It's humbling to be part of.

- It's very humbling.

- Yeah.

- I think everyone at this table's humbled to be in the positions that we're in or that I was in.

- Yeah.

But still.

- Yeah.

- Where do you go from here?

What other programs do you have?

Because I know people do think of the shelter.

- They do, right.

- But you have other things going on too.

- Yeah, we've really, like I say, we've really transitioned the focus of the ministry from that crisis relief which really we just say it's a gateway.

It's an entryway onto a pathway out of poverty.

And so most of our focus is on transformation and then transition.

I think an exciting thing that we're just in the midst of launching, exciting, not because of the need.

Unfortunately, homelessness has actually doubled in the last two years here in Peoria, which is it had been going down ever since 2018.

We were seeing it go down in the last two years, it's doubled.

And as you, we've all seen, there's more unsheltered, homelessness and more kinda visible panhandling.

And so this fall with a group of churches, we are launching a street outreach aspect where we wanna go out to the community that is not coming in and just we say we wanna be incarnational and invitational meaning we wanna be with them like Jesus came to be with us, but then invitational, to invite them into community, to support and to help.

- I think people struggle.

The average person struggles when they see someone on the street on a corner.

Is this a scam?

- Right.

- Are they homeless?

Should I just pretend like I'm looking at my phone?

You know, they, everybody goes through it.

- It's hard.

Absolutely.

- It's very hard.

- It's not an easy thing and it's just become so prevalent and there's all sorts of reasons for it from a, you know, state and legal standpoint.

- I get it.

- Why it is but you know, what we say, Matt, is that you can't solve poverty, but you can solve poverty for Sue or for Bill, or, you know, for a person.

And so I encourage people, if it's safe, you always wanna make sure that you feel safe.

But if it's safe, the thing to do is just say, hey I'm John, what's your name?

Suddenly they're not invisible.

Suddenly there's a name.

- Yeah.

- And yes, we don't really encourage giving cash because likely what they really need is real true help.

Not- - Yeah.

- A limited, you know, fix.

But I think it's important to just see them, recognize them, let them not be invisible.

- People don't use this word anymore, but they need love.

- Absolutely.

- Um-hum.

- I mean, that's what it is.

- That's what that is - Right?

- Yeah.

- What you just said - Is love.

- Right.

- And it is, you know, when kids would come through Children's Home, some kids have never been hugged.

That's pitiful.

- Right.

- It actually is.

People ask me, you know, why did you get into that business?

Because it ticks me off.

- Yeah.

- So if you really wanna know, so I would always say it's our jobs to fight for the kids that can't fight.

What you're doing, and what you're doing is you're fighting for people.

Doesn't matter what age it is, you're fighting for people that can't fight.

And I like what you said about the poverty piece 'cause I was gonna ask poverty's not there's is not a solution.

- No.

- But you're right, there is if you individualize it.

- [John] Right, it's the only way you can do it.

- That is pretty cool.

Well, Jeanna, you're doing great things.

Keep it up.

- Thanks.

- Keep it up.

And you need volunteers.

- We do.

- [Matt] You need volunteers.

All right.

- Yes.

So Jeanna with Safe Families, thank you so much.

- Thank you for having us.

- [Matt] For coming on.

And again, that story that was that I told was a real one.

- I love it.

- And I'll never forget it.

John, you're doing great things.

You said you're doing, you know, the money you received in your mind, that's God's money.

- Absolutely.

- And you're making change.

- Yep.

- And that's what it's about.

- Both of you.

Both of you keep it up.

- Thanks for having us.

- And thanks.

This is the third part of a series and, you know, thanks to Impact Central Illinois for making a difference.

- Oh my.

- Absolutely.

- They are.

- Thank you both for coming on.

I'm Matt George and this is another episode of Business Forward.

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