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Events
May 1, 2024 Carrie

Greater Helena Gives: Ensure Our Place Stays a Beacon of Hope

This Greater Helena Gives Day, we urge you to consider supporting Our Place —a vital resource in our community for individuals who are experiencing houselessness or are in need of immediate support.

At Our Place, we operate on the principle that kindness, dignity, and respect are fundamental to helping individuals create a stable, violence-free environment for themselves and their families. It’s not just a place; it’s a community where people can come together to find solace, support, and the resources necessary to improve their lives.

Services Provided at Our Place:

  • Personal outreach and engagement
  • Peer recovery and mental health services
  • Socialization opportunities and community group activities
  • Crisis mitigation and quality of life improvements
  • Essential aid including housing, transportation, job application support, and more

Since taking management in December 2019, Good Samaritan Ministries has significantly expanded the capabilities of Our Place. We now serve an average of 1,100 people per month—a doubling of our outreach—while increasing the services we offer by 85%.

Your Support Is Crucial:

As we continue to grow and serve more individuals in need, the importance of community support becomes ever clearer. Your donations help sustain and expand our services, ensuring that everyone who comes through our doors finds the help they need to stabilize and succeed.

This #GreaterHelenaGives, please consider making a donation to Good Samaritan Ministries. Your contribution will directly support our efforts to empower individuals, foster community, and provide critical services that can change lives.

Together, we can make a significant impact and ensure that no one in our community has to face their challenges alone.

To donate follow this link:

https://www.greaterhelenagives.org/organizations/good-samaritan-thrift-store-and-ministries-helena

Events, In the News, News
December 22, 2023 Carrie

Helena shelter residents aim to ‘change public perception’ with city block clean-up

Clients of Our Place, the Good Samaritan Ministries-run addiction recovery drop-in center, spent much of Tuesday morning cleaning up the block in an effort to change public perception.

Good Samaritan Ministries and United Way of the Lewis and Clark Area were granted a conditional use permit by the Helena City Commission Monday night, allowing them to open a 25-bed emergency shelter for women at 649 Jackson St.

The commission heard hours of public comment ahead of the vote, some of which was in opposition to the proposed shelter. Those opposed cited littering and vandalism among their concerns.

“We are working very hard to humanize our unsheltered neighbors and get the message across that these people are not all criminals,” local United Way Director of Community Impact Jeff Buscher said Tuesday morning.

He said some of the Our Place clients came up with the idea of cleaning up the block during a group meeting.

“We’re giving them the tools to do what they want to do and that is clean up the neighborhood,” he said.

“We have to show them that we want to be good neighbors, but they have to understand that the status quo isn’t working,” CJ said while sweeping dirt off a Last Chance Gulch sidewalk ramp.

Rachell, another Our Place client, said her participation in the clean up helps her out. Rachell said she has been diagnosed with growing calcifications in her brain. She called them “brain stones” and said they have manifested obsessive compulsive tendencies in her.

“It’s nice to have my feet on the ground,” she said.

She said she has noticed many of the unsheltered in Helena do have mental health problems like her.

“They’re not trying to be disrespectful,” she said. “They are unable to make the right choices.”

Buscher said he hopes the clean-up will become a regular occurrence, but that it will take some encouragement.

Events
October 5, 2023 Edge Marketing

Thank You to Supporters of the St. Francis Dinner

Thank you to everyone who donated to the St. Francis Dinner fundraiser! We appreciate your support and contribution to Street Outreach programming. With the funds raised, we will be able to purchase tents, blankets, food, and clothes for our homeless neighbors this winter. Thank you for your continued kindness and generosity towards our mission!

 

Events
September 6, 2023 Edge Marketing

St. Francis Dinner is Back!!!

Good Samaritan Ministries Series 900 LLC is Proud to Announce… St. Francis Dinner is Back!!!

A Free, Goodwill offering, dinner with the Knights of Columbus, Helena Hibernians, and Good Samaritan Ministries to share a simple meal in solidarity with those less fortunate.

September 21, 2023
Knights of Columbus Hall
1867 Washington St.
Helena, MT 59601

Goodwill offering online: Click Here

Call for information: 406-442-0780
Doors open at 5:45
Dinner at 6:15
Short Program starts at 6:40

Read More >>

Events, In the News, News
August 24, 2023 Edge Marketing

Rough Sleepers: A Community Conversation about the Unsheltered in Helena

Rough Sleepers: A Community Conversation about the Unsheltered in Helena

Plymouth Church – UCC, in partnership with the Lewis and Clark Library, United Way, the Montana Jewish Project, Good Samaritan and the Helena United Methodist Churches, invite the public to participate in the reading and five-week discussion of “Rough Sleepers” by Pulitzer-prize winning author, Tracy Kidder. The origins of housing shortages, education, medical care, and substance abuse are a few of the topics that will be featured each week and explored by leaders in our community, from Wednesday August 30 through Wednesday September 27. All discussions will be held at 12 noon; sack lunches encouraged. The Lewis and Clark Library hosts the first gathering in the meeting room, though each week the discussion will move to other locations. No reservations required; all are invited whether or not you have read the book.

 

August 30 at Lewis and Clark County Library, 120 S. Last Chance Gulch

“Why Now? Historical Origins of the Housing Crisis”, (discussion about why homelessness seems like a national crisis now) facilitated by Dr. Pat Christian, Carroll College

 

September 6 at Our Place, 631 N. Last Chance Gulch

“Who Is My Neighbor?” (Stories of people who are homeless), facilitated by Theresa Ortega, Good Samaritan, and Rev. Dr. Jeff Buscher, United Way

 

September 13 at the Montana Jewish Project Temple Emanu-El, 515 N. Ewing

“What’s Education Got to Do with It?” (Information from an educator, social

worker and a parent interacting with unsheltered children and adults),

participants include Siobhan Hathhorn, Chair of the Helena School Board

Trustees, Jaymie Sheldahl, Family and Community Partnerships for Rocky

Mountain Development Council Head Start with Jennifer Hedges

 

September 20 at Covenant United Methodist Church, 2330 E. Broadway

“Practical Considerations and Overwhelming Needs” (a perspective from local government regarding low-income housing and the challenges the city and county face) facilitated County Commissioner Andy Hunthausen and Mayor Wilmot Collins

 

September 27 at Plymouth Church – UCC, 400 S. Oakes (lunch provided)

“What About Drugs, Addictions, Mental Health and Other Life Threatening Concerns on the Streets”, facilitated by Teresa KelleyBrewer, Pure View Clinic

Events, News
January 11, 2023 denisem

January is Poverty Awareness Month!

January is Poverty Awareness Month. More than 1.5 million children experience homelessness in a year and over 37 million Americans live in poverty. Our Street Outreach Program is always in need of hats, gloves, socks, blankets, sleeping bags, and tents for our unsheltered neighbors if you have any of these items to donate please drop them off at Good Samaritan or Our Place.

Events, News
November 28, 2022 denisem

2022 SHARE THE WARMTH COAT DRIVE

STARTING THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1ST AT 9:00A.M. – 4:00P.M.
GOOD SAMARITAN WILL BE DISTRIBUTING LIGHTLY USED WINTER COATS
AT THE GSM RECEPTION OFFICE TO THOSE IN NEED
THIS HAS BEEN A COLLABORATION WITH: MR. WISE CLEANER, MONTANA RADIO AND GOOD SAMARITAN MINISTRIES
THANK YOU TO ALL PARTNERS!
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