Hope Gospel Mission's new facility hopes to help more people with homelessness, addiction
EAU CLAIRE — With people in the community who experience homelessness and addiction, Chris Hedlund, program manager for Hope Gospel Mission, said creating and offering resources is critical.
As people gathered for the ribbon cutting at Hope Gospel Mission's Hope Resource Center on Wednesday, many celebrated the chance to continue and expand the capacity of programs on their campus.
Their new facility started construction back in September 2023 and includes approximately 8,500-square-feet of space. Hedlund said it does not necessarily add any new existing support and addiction services to the ones they already provide, but it is built for growth with 10 years in mind. Furthermore, he said it expands their capacity to be able to help more residents in their program at any given time, from 40 to 50 persons to around 80.
"In our last building, we only had one classroom where we could teach one class at a time," said Hedlund. "In this building, we have three classrooms so we can teach three classes at a time."
As for what they do, Hedlund said that Hope Gospel Mission is not a typical homeless shelter.
"One of the components of our program is educational," said Mark Donnelly, Hope Gospel Mission founder and board president. "We get a lot of residents who come in who don't even have a GED, or some have it but need a brushing up on the basic skills. That is what we do here."
Donnelly, who founded Hope Gospel Mission alongside his wife Cindy Donnelly, said they originally formed in the 90s as a response to a need for resources against homelessness and addiction counseling has implemented job coaching, finding employment and a multitude of programs. The resources take place within a Christian environment, but are offered to those who need it for shorter 90-day programs and longer stays which range more around 14 to 16 months.
But with expansion that has been continual for their program since its conception, Donnelly said, "It has been based on need. We didn't just expand for expansion sake. As the need grew, so did our facilities to be able to help."
Hedlund reiterated that growing need, as the Point-in-Time Homeless Count for Eau Claire and other surrounding counties continues to go up. The count itself is conducted by Western Dairyland staff and community volunteers to understand how many people in the community are homeless.
In January 2024, the number of individuals in Eau Claire, Buffalo, Jackson and Trempealeau counties was at 52. In July 2024, that number was 104 individuals.
"We anticipate the problem is getting worse and people are going to need our help, and so we want to be prepared for that and be proactive," said Hedlund.
With the Hope Learning Center, Hedlund said, "It helps us because we had reached a bottleneck where we were full. Our building was at capacity which could limit the number of people we could help, because we didn't have space to help more. This building removes that bottleneck and allows us to keep moving forward and help more people."
Furthermore, it creates a safe environment that allows people to focus on getting well rather than focusing on surviving. In celebrating the completion of their new facility, their aim is to continue to act as a resource in that regard.
"I am just really excited, because we are going to be able to help people more than we were before..." said Mark Donnelly. "This just gives us a much nicer facility and more resources here to be able to help."
