The Community Partnership of the Ozarks and its partners offer a variety of services at the O’Reilly Center for Hope in Springfield. Once a month they focus their efforts on what they call a Day of Hope.
June’s Day of Hope was themed around families and family resources, past Days have emphasized veterans' resources and eye care. This Wednesday, for July’s program they’ll focus on helping individuals obtain IDs and birth certificates. Adam Bodendiek Director of Homelessness Services for Community Partnership of the Ozarks said the events give them a chance to offer services they can’t provide every day, though the Days of Hope are ultimately about more than any one service.
“An event like this is very accessible,” Bodendiek explained, “it’s a good entry point, and so from there you’re able to not only address whatever the primary need is but, (and) this is something we practice day-in and day-out, figure out what else is needed, what else can we do; how else can we help.”
They hosted ten Days of Hope during the last fiscal year and served nearly 450 people.
Bodendiek said, “of those individuals there were more than 11,000 referrals made.”
Bodendiek said some services and partners are grant funded, and in some cases, there are strict eligibility requirements. The ID and birth certificate services offered Wednesday for instance. He added that that doesn’t mean someone won’t be able to access other services offered that day. He says the events are really open for everyone and they want to help everyone they can as much as they can.
Last year they skipped December and January but generally they host a Day of Hope on the fourth Wednesday of the month every month from 9 a.m. to noon at the O’Reilly Center for Hope. You can follow Community Partnership of the Ozarks on social media to keep up with each month’s event or find their event calendar online at cpozarks.org
Find information about July’s Day of Hope at this link.