Jacksonville, North Carolina (Onslow County)
Through our H.E.L.P.S. Program, we are able to provide a nutritious meal, a shower, and a warm, safe place for residents to sleep. Rescue work starts right here. We are meeting the immediate needs of men, women, and women with children in urgent situations. But we don’t stop with food and shelter; Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S. is much more than a shelter because we don’t just address homelessness, we address the issues of the heart. We challenge residents to question the choices, behaviors, and patterns in their lives that may have brought them to their current state of need. It is our goal to foster an atmosphere of trust, accountability, and responsibility. We desire to act in the best interest of the resident. Through our H.E.L.P.S. Program, we have established the following:
This level of service provides a safe, healing environment where our guests will receive the essentials of life: at least seven nights of hot showers and warm beds, up to three meals per day, and clothing for those who need it.
We are committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ to all who come to receive services. We believe and teach that lives change when they are centered around Him. We work with each guest, and see if the guest has any interest in and readiness for one of our long-term programs.
This level of service suits well those coming out of prison who need assistance with their transition. Length of stay will be decided on an individual basis.
Some guests have fallen into hardship and lost housing or jobs but do not have life debilitating issues. These men only need temporary, free or low-cost housing and an opportunity to find new employment in the community.
In our Work Program, the resident may live for free while engaged in his job search. Along with assistance in his search for employment, we provide dress clothes with specialized training to help him to be a good, long-term employee.
As the resident finds employment, he may choose to maintain his residency with low-cost, subsidized housing, during which time he will save for his transition back to the community.
For those struggling with addiction or other life-threatening problems, we offer an effective, spiritually based, long-term, addiction recovery and discipleship program. This 12-24 month program is an intensive mixture of:
Like the Men’s Work Program, when the resident finds employment he may choose to maintain his residency with low-cost, subsidized housing, during which time he will save for his transition back to the community.
This serves as a stabilization period for women and their children. The emergency shelter provides 30 days of warm, safe shelter, three meals a day and clothing. Clients are met with hope and love through daily Bible studies and chapel services. Ladies meet with a counselor during their first week here to assess their needs and goals. Through partnerships with local organizations/agencies, we can clearly direct clients to the exact services they need most. Some of the most basic, yet crucial help we offer is directing ladies to apply for social security cards, birth certificates, or their child’s last report card. These documents are essential when applying for jobs or enrolling children in school.
The desire of the Women’s Program is to foster an environment of accountability and responsibility while helping each woman grow in her desire to be a contributing member of society. Warm, safe shelter and three meals a day are generally provided for 2-3 months or longer based on appropriate needs and goals. While a woman is looking for work or an apartment, optional enrollment is available in MCI’s Life Learning and Career Center (GED, computer literacy, and money management) as well as Recovery Workshops and Childcare Classes. Weekly sessions with a MCI counselor include biblical counseling, case management, and discussions of needs and goals.
Playtime for children is provided during morning devotions, evening chapel, and during other MCI classes in which a woman may enroll. A client is responsible for her children during all other times.
Our Women’s Ministries and Children’s Ministries are in a period of transition. We are currently assessing how we can maximize a lady’s time with us to best meet her needs.
The Family Shelter is one of the newest ways Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S. is serving the community. It offers ten family units where parents can stay with their children in an emergency situation. It is one of the first of its kind in Onslow County!
Previously a dorm for men, the Family Shelter was renovated during the year-long project made possible by the Expanding Boundaries to Rescue Lives campaign. In December 2007, we welcomed our first family into the Family Shelter. Barbara had been becoming emotionally exhausted after two months of living with her three daughters in Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S.’s Women Shelter, while her three sons, who were too old to live in the Women’s Shelter, were sleeping in Barbara’s van, in churches, or at friends’ houses. Opening the first unit of our Family Shelter allowed Barbara’s family to be united. After moving in, the family commented on how thankful they were for the simple things like beds, showers, and clean clothes.
The Family Shelter will allow us to serve four types of families for the first time:
• Single moms with boys over age 12
• Single dads with children of any age
• A husband and wife with two or more children
• Multigenerational families
We will open the remaining family units in stages, allowing us to respond to unique issues as they arise and to develop a program to fit the clients’ needs.
To serve families, we will capitalize on what we already do well: coordinating with local agencies for career development (Career Link’s Ready to Work Program) and permanent housing (Tabor, The Lodge); providing on-site case management and Christian Counseling; and providing three meals a day and on-site medical/dental care for the uninsured. Our goal is to help clients address the emotional, social and psychological impact of homelessness on their family.
As we determine programming for the Family Shelter, we will also evaluate our ministry to homeless children to determine how we can best serve parents and their children during their stay at Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S..
The Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S. Residential Ministries’ programs of rescue and renewal to the homeless and hungry are centered on the person of Jesus Christ and assume and deliver a progression toward Christ likeness. Therefore, our services to the needy will be:
• Clearly Biblically grounded
• Relevant to this season of our clients’ lives and journeys
• Constructed and delivered to honor each person as a person
• Assuming the standard of Christ-like love for all behavior (both staff and client)
• Delivered relevant to the individual receiving the services
• Maintained in an environment that is save and healing
• Cultivating change from the inside out
Many people who come to Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S. misunderstand the importance of life-long learning. The LCC helps residents catch a vision for achieving more in life through learning. Pairing educational quality and life laboratory, the LCC is a place where broken people find hope and healing.
The Learning Center includes three phases:
Academics (GED)
Computer Literacy
Money Management
The Career Center provides resume training, job interview skills, and job placement. Essentially the Career Center allows residents to choose a direction, get there and experience life there. We partner with community organizations to provide our residents the best possible career opportunities.
We’re proud of the diversity of our students, as we serve men and women with education ranges from grade school to those with Master’s Degrees. Approximately 40 students are enrolled in the United American Free Will Baptist Bible College.
Many families can’t afford to provide their little ones with a sound, Biblical education, but that’s what Wonder Club is all about! As a ministry of Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S., Wonder Club provides a quality, Biblically-based pre-school and kindergarten program for boys and girls in the cities of Eastern North Carolina.
We offer a hands-on, multi-sensory, developmentally guided, and fun-filled approach to students’ educational experiences.
• Locations: Eastern North Carolina
• Class hours: Monday – Friday
8:30 – 11:00 am
12:30 – 3:00 pm
8:30 – 3:00 (full day)
• Full and partial scholarships offered to families
• Schedule of activities followed daily
• Christian, Early Childhood and/or Elementary degree teachers and/or equivalent preschool experiences
• One teacher to 8 children ratio.
Curriculum
Wonder Club’s curriculum is based on a philosophy that says in part, students are individuals and need to be taught accordingly. Thus, the need to follow the principle of “teaching” the “whole” child, through developmentally appropriate practice in the following domain areas: cognitive, emotional, social, physical, creative, and spiritual. Wonder Club is registered with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and is a member of the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, two professional organizations that encourage “preschools” to implement these early childhood standards in their daily practices.
Learning Method
Preschool age children are concrete learners: these children learn best by a hands-on approach to learning. Each student is encouraged to explore his/her world through their senses of touching, seeing, hearing, and smelling.
Special Guests
There are times that individuals from the community, including some Wonder Club parents, are invited to come and share about their profession or hobby with the boys and girls.
Field Trips
Trips are planned so that the children can extend their learning beyond the classroom by having some key experiences within the community in which they live, such as visiting museums, farms, dentist office, and other local places.
Vision and Mission
Wonder Club’s vision is to equip families to make a difference in their personal lives and community for Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, our mission is to serve, educate, and evangelize inner city young children and their family members by meeting their needs, and through the sharing of knowledge and experiences according to godly principles.
For more information about registering your child, please contact the corporate office.
Churches from the community conduct services at Mount Carmel/ H.E.L.P.S. chapel 365 nights a year. Residents as well as community members attend these services.
The Chapel was renovated into a multi-use facility through a renovation project we completed in spring 2007. As seen in the newspaper recently, this Chapel is also the site of a day shelter – a safe place where the homeless can shower, do laundry, and talk with a case manager about their needs.
In 2012, when we developed plans to renovate our Chapel into a multi-purpose chapel, conversations about a day shelter had not yet started. We believe God stirred our hearts back in 2012 to renovate our chapel in this capacity so that it could be available to the homeless as a day shelter today.
The day-shelter concept is made possible by several organizations working together to maximize our strengths. Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S. believes we can accomplish more for the homeless by working together, and we are excited to offer a safe place for homeless guests to connect with others and be encouraged on their path of change.
Many people in the community reside in their own homes or apartments but live just one or two paychecks from homelessness. It is our desire to help meet basic needs while building relationships that may allow us to provide help in deeper ways.
We offer two, weekly food distributions and two weekly bread/pastry distributions for people living in the community. Food varies based on what has been donated but may consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, pastries, or canned foods. Guests may come once a week for food distributions and twice a week for bread/pastry distribution.
Monday Bread and pastry Distribution 10 a.m. to noon
Tuesday Weekly Food Distribution
(photo ID is required) 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Wednesday Weekly Food Distribution
(photo ID is required) 9:30 a.m. to noon
Friday bread and pastry Distribution 10 a.m. to noon
In partnership with local churches, Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S. distributes over 2,000 Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas food boxes each year. Recipients pre-register for these food boxes and receive different amounts of food based on the number of individuals living in their household.
Local churches are a crucial link in the holiday food distributions, as they have the capacity to build individual relationships with those receiving food.
The Gift Outlet was opened after the decision to close the Lancaster Thrift Store in December 2005. This change allowed us to deepen the effectiveness of our service to the homeless by expanding ministries like the Learning Center and the medical/dental clinic while still providing items to people in need.
With enough volunteer support, the Gift Outlet will provide clothing and furniture at no cost to community members who are referred by a church or social service agency. The goal is to meet basic needs while developing relationships that may lead to further opportunities.
Currently the Gift Outlet provides clothing and furniture to WSRM clients. Often clients come to us with nothing more than the clothing they are wearing. It is at these times that the Gift Outlet provides clothing. When a client successfully moves into his/her own apartment, the Gift Outlet is then able to help furnish their new home.
Our work cannot continue without the generosity of our friends and neighbors who contribute though our Collection Center. The items we receive here are distributed to the Water Street Thrift Store (Columbia), residents as they transition from the Mission into the community, and to the Gift Outlet*.
Thank you for adhering to the following donation guidelines:
• new or gently used clothing
• new or gently used shoes
• new or gently used furniture**
We gladly accept your donations at the Collection Center during the following hours:
Monday: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Tuesday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
(Located on Conestoga Street, perpendicular to Prince Street and Water Street)
**To arrange a furniture pick-up, please call (717) 393-7709. Sorry – pick-up is not available in all areas.
As of April 2007, Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S. is working in partnership with Auction Inn to sell antique or unique items online! The proceeds of the sales will benefit Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S.. If you have items that fall into these categories, please drop them off at Auction Inn, 241 West Lemon Street, Lancaster. You can schedule a donation pick up or discuss your item’s value by calling Auction Inn at (717) 509-6592.
Note: When dropping off an item at Auction Inn, please be sure to designate that your donation is in honor of Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S.
Suggested items for sale through Auction Inn:
Antiques – Collectibles – Musical Instruments – Electronics – Cameras – Automobile Parts – Sporting Goods – Exercise Equipment – Hobby Equipment — Machinery
The kitchen at Mount Carmel/H.E.L.P.S. is always busy as we make and serve three meals a day, 365 days a year! On average, we provide about 450 meals daily to residents and community members. A majority of the food we serve is donated through individuals, businesses and restaurants.
We hold an Annual Fall Food Drive from October through December each year. Through this effort, the community blesses us with enough canned goods to meet our kitchen needs for the majority of the following year!
We gladly welcome donations any time of year, including fresh meat, fruits, and vegetables, at our Food Dock between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily.
Sometimes, we receive food from companies in larger quantities than we can use before it spoils. We have developed relationships with churches and agencies who also offer meals or food banks in Craven &Wayne Counties, and in these cases we pass the food onto them. None of it spoils and more people are fed!
