It is fitting that the Dignity Center shines as one of the crown jewels in the treasure trove of ministries at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, 511 Groveland, near Loring Park just off Downtown Minneapolis.In name and in mission, in philosophy and in practice, the Dignity Center insists on recognizing value in each and every human being, and from that fundamental posture, the program responds to individuals’ needs, supporting their efforts to become more stable and to move toward self sufficiency.
The Center relies on volunteers from within its congregation and from the community at large. Now approaching its fifth year, the Center continues to attract powerful people who invest their voices and their energy to support the Center’s ability to support people.
This weekend, the mighty Steele Family, Minnesota’s First Family of Soul, raises its powerful voice to support the work. The Steele's present Working to Make a Better Love, a benefit concert at 8pm Saturday April 24 at Hennepin United Methodist Church.
The Steele’s benefit performance is an outgrowth of Jevetta Steele’s two years of service as a Dignity Center volunteer. Moved by the healing and restorative power of the Center, she invited her famous family music enterprise to join her in celebrating and supporting Dignity Center.
Jevetta Steele is also known for her Academy Award nominated performance of Calling You from the motion picture Bagdad Café, certified Gold in Europe. She is a well-known actress and playwright, currently preparing for her return to the Ordway Theater this August in her Broadway role as Ismane in The Gospel at Colonus.
Benefit tickets are $30 and can be purchased online at HennepinChurch.org or by calling (612) 871-5303. More information about the Steeles is online at thesteelesmusic.com.
According to Ann Carlson, Executive Director of the Dignity Center, the program serves homeless and impoverished people. Nowadays, she said in an interview Tuesday on KFAI-FM’s “Conversations with Al McFarlane” broadcast, the program is serving more people who have recently lost their jobs and who have never before been homeless. “They are like deer in headlights,” she said, describing the immobilizing impact of homelessness and poverty.
“We support them with one-to-one relationships… letting each person who comes in know that someone knows your name…that someone cares about you,” Carlson said.
“Many churches often provide charity. A meal. A holiday basket. We are doing something completely different,” she said.
Clint Hewitt is Professor Emeritus of the College of Design and Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota. He is a proud father, grandfather and concerned citizen who thinks about how our society addresses the disparity of resources among various people. He serves on the Dignity Center Steering Committee. He says he believes the Dignity Center provides the opportunity for people to express their Christian Faith, by providing service with a level of dignity that respects each person’s equality in the sight of God.
“Often there is difficulty in how we treat people who are poor and not in the same situation as ourselves,” he said. “Dignity Center actually reflects the unique attitude that that we are brothers and sisters. I heard a client say the Center ‘is like Cheers-- a place where everybody knows my name.’
“It is an approach that is needed,” Hewitt said in the broadcast interview. “All relationships should be on the basis of a person having worth and we should be able to respond to that person’s needs.”
Rita Lyell retired after 45 years from Wells Fargo as a Vice President in the Information Technology division. For the past three years, she has worked as a volunteer receptionist at the Dignity Center. Her primary role is to welcome and register clients. She shares information about the program and services provided. She also serves on the Dignity Center Steering Committee.
Lyell has been member of the Hennepin United Methodist Church for more than half a century. While she has always volunteered to help the needy, she didn’t sign on to the Dignity Center until she got the call from Carlson, two days following her retirement from Wells Fargo. “I didn’t even get a chance to sleep in for a few days,” she said, smiling. “It is something I wanted to do but hadn’t had the chance till I retired.
“People want someone to know their name and to look at them, not down at them,” she said. “This is an environment where they are safe.”
Asked how she translated her experiences as a corporate vice president to serving the homeless, Lyell said she brings the same sincerity, integrity and genuineness. “Volunteering was not new to me. I volunteered regularly at Loaves and Fishes for years. I responded to Ann Carlson’s call because I felt there was a need. I leave everyday feeling I have reached out and touched one of my brothers and sisters. I know only by the Grace of God it wasn’t me that was in need. My role as a Christian is to be my brother’s keeper,” Lyell said.
Likewise, for Executive Director Ann Carlson, the Dignity Center is a calling. She has worked in human services for 45 years. She taught at the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development for eight years, started the YWCA Children’s Center in downtown Minneapolis, and worked as a Family Life Educator for Family and Children’s Service. In mid-career, she returned to school and got a degree in Counseling Psychology and had a private practice in Child and Family Therapy. She has been the Director of the Dignity Center for 4 ½ y ears.
“My career has been devoted to helping people develop themselves. I have worked with kids, seniors and people in therapy. The theme is that I have worked with people who are economically poor,” Carlson said.
“I feel called to do this work,” she said. “Ten years ago I had breast cancer. I had the Big Dream. God came to me and said ‘I have work for you to do.’ This is it."
Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church itself is a crown jewel on America’s religious landscape. Rita Lyell recounted that her family, prior to 1957, attended Border Methodist Church in North Minneapolis. The Black congregation was displaced by Interstate 94 construction, a move many now refer to as urban removal, not the promised urban renewal.
Border was a sister church to Hennepin Methodist Church. The congregations merged in 1957. It was the first time in American history that an all white and an all Black church merged.
Hewitt and his family were Methodists living in Ann Arbor, MI when work relocated them to the Twin Cities in the early 70s. His minister in Ann Arbor suggested he look at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist as a new church home. “We knew the history and the challenge the congregants had undertaken. In light of the 1972 social environment, we saw this church committed to the challenges of the day, recognizing that we are all children of God,” Hewitt said.
The mission of the Dignity Center, standing between charity and justice, is to provide support, opportunity and resources for people in transition as they regain stability in their lives and move towards self-sufficiency. The Dignity Center follows a unique, comprehensive model to provide support to clients on their path to regain stability in nine key focus areas: Housing, Income/Financial Management, Employment, Health/Medical Needs, Education, Relationships, Legal Issues, Substance Abuse, and Organizational Skills.
Open three mornings per week, the Center is where clients meet with a trained volunteer advocate to address each client’s unique needs. The Dignity Center program is founded on clients developing an ongoing and supportive relationship with one or two volunteer advocates. This working relationship ensures accountability and gives clients hope and encouragement along the way as they regain confidence and self-motivation.
In January of 2009, Hennepin County identified 235 individuals unsheltered, living on the streets, in cars, or in other places unfit for human habitation. Hennepin County has a public/private shelter system that serves 290 families, 780 single adults and 48 youth. The demand for shelter space has increased by 60 percent in the past year.
The Dignity Center had 4,153 client visits, both first time and repeat, a 13 percent increase compared with 3,667 client visits in 2008. The success of the Center is built on a cadre of more than 70 volunteers from throughout the greater Twin Cities Metro area, both from HAUMC and other congregations as well as unaffiliated individuals who donated an estimated 5,000 hours of their time supporting the work of the Dignity Center.
In 2009, Dignity Center clients received referrals for housing, job counseling and training, schooling, medical resources, psychological counseling, food shelves, financial counseling, and legal help;$32.538.28 worth of tokens and bus cards for medical appointments, schooling, housing and job searches, about double the amount provided in 2008; (In order to continue receiving transportation aid, clients need to provide documentation that the transportation help was used to meet scheduled appointments.); 3,112 pounds of emergency food, about double the amount provided in 2008; hats, gloves, scarves, backpacks, toiletry kits, calendars, and sets of school supplies; vouchers and cash help worth more than $20,000 for eyeglasses, dental care, clothes, household goods, and haircuts; supportive, stable and structured environment where they could set goals for themselves and build back a sense of dignity.
The Dignity Center budget in 2009 was $154,493, about one-third of that supports one-and-one-half paid staff positions. The single largest category of expenditure for the Dignity Center services is bus transportation, which is approximately 32 percent of the program budget. Volunteers raised $132,720 in 2009 to fund the program. Other sources of funding include the HAUMC operating budget and church foundation, other church foundations and fundraising events.
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