At the ceremony, Greene County Commissioner read a proclamation declaring a county-wide "Salvation Army Week," coinciding with national Salvation Army Week.
Outside of Christmastime, you’re probably not super familiar with the organization. You might not know, for example, that they’re actually a church. Cyndi and Amos Shiels are the 'co-majors' of the Army here in Springfield, and in addition to acting as administrators, they’re also pastors — they run a service at headquarters every Sunday.
Salvation Army majors move cities every couple of years. — the Shiels have worked in communities in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. So, I asked Cyndi: what stands out about Springfield?
"There are a lot of resources here," she said. "There are a lot of nonprofits — it seems like volunteerism is really important."
In terms of challenges facing the community, Shiels said that Springfield isn't particularly unique — within the past few years, many of the people seeking social services have never needed help before.
Shiels said that she sees the Army’s niche in the community as twofold. The first is directly feeding people, in tandem with a number of other local organizations. The second is providing shelter over an extended period of time, with the eventual goal of finding long-term housing, which means… the number of people served is going to look like less [than an overnight shelter] because they might be with us for six months."
The Salvation Army has attracted criticism in the past for alleged anti-LGBTQ positions and incidents. While the organization asserts that their services are open to everyone and that discriminatory actions at shelters are never top-down decisions, the criticisms nevertheless present a problem for the Army in a national environment where a great deal of tension surrounds queer issues.
"It's challenging," said Shiels, "to have people believe one thing or another about us based on — I don't even know where it comes from — we really try to just do the best we can and try to do it in a loving, compassionate way. It's kind of heartbreaking that maybe that hasn't been the way that everybody's been treated, and I don't know really what to say about that other than just trying to do better."
The nonprofit sector in general right now is pretty uncertain, with sweeping federal cuts affecting a lot of organizations. While Salvation Army Springfield doesn’t rely on federal funding, Shiels acknowledged the possibility of demand for services going up as a result.
"Right now, I don’t know that we have a great plan for that, that’s a really good question." Shiels laughed. "Right now, we’re just trying to do the best we can to meet the need."