Jasmine Mitchell remembers it like a scene from a movie.
Last October, Vivian Thompson, a Brightpoint home visitor, had already visited the Mitchell household and left. But then, minutes later, she returned with some shockingly good news.
“She said, ‘By the way, you got the car,’” said Mitchell, 34, laughing at the memory. “She had to say it like five times. And then we were all clapping, hollering, crying. I couldn’t believe it.”
More specifically, Mitchell, a hard-working single mother of two, was selected to receive a donated car through the Needs Among Us program, a partnership between Brightpoint and the First United Presbyterian Church in Belleville.
Since 2015, Needs Among Us has provided various forms of critical support for the church’s parishioners, before growing in 2019 to also serve families and staff connected to Brightpoint. In the past seven years, the program has provided an estimated $400,000 in goods and services, including cars, housing and utility assistance, home and auto repairs, help with medical bills, tuition assistance, clothes and more, said the church’s senior pastor, the Rev. Rob Dyer.
Nearly all of it is raised through the church’s diverse and growing congregation, Dyer said.
Those receiving the help are a mix of members of the church and families identified by Brightpoint’s case workers. Those giving to the program don’t know if they’re helping the person next to them in the pew or someone who’s never set foot in the church.
That’s exactly the point, Dyer said.
“It’s called Needs Among Us and we wanted to make the us bigger,” the pastor said.
“Our generosity should be radical. It should be extreme,” Dyer said. “We think the same thing about grace. We think the same thing about forgiveness. And if you think about it, it’s all a generosity of the spirit.”
The pastor continued: “And this relationship with Brightpoint has been such a blessing because it’s given us an outlet for our generosity.”
Hope in hard times
If all goes to plan, Doshiemae Johnson will walk the stage this fall at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville with a bachelor’s degree in education.
Currently a substitute teacher, she hopes to become a full-time teacher with benefits to better provide for her three sons, ages 2, 11 and 13.
“I’m trying to make a better future for my children and myself,” said Johnson, 38, of Cahokia, Illinois.
It hasn’t been easy. Though married, she’s been operating as a single parent with her husband incarcerated, Johnson said. At times, she’s struggled with depression. But she’s persevering and now her dream is within sight as she prepares to take her final course this summer.
Like Mitchell, Johnson’s also a participant in Brightpoint’s home visiting program, which also includes group meetings and events with other parents and their children.
“It’s been cool just meeting other parents sharing the same struggles and knowing that I’m not alone,” she said.
In March, Needs Among Us gave her college graduation dream a timely and needed boost by paying off unpaid tuition, allowing her to continue in the program.
“Your generosity has given me hope and encouragement during a very difficult time,” Johnson wrote in a thank you letter to Dyer and members of the church.
Keely Giles has served a bridge between the First United Presbyterian Church, where she is an elder, and Brightpoint, where’s she a longtime Southern Regional Board member. Along with Renae Storey, former vice president of Brightpoint’s Southern region, Giles was instrumental in nurturing the partnership into what it is today.
“We never require anything of the participants,” Giles said. “They certainly do not need to come to our church. They don’t need to be Christian. We’re just doing this because it’s good and right.”
Before partnering with Brightpoint, Needs Among Us was primarily focused on the needs within the congregation, Giles said. Building compassion for one another was crucial before turning outward to the larger community.
In the words of Pastor Rob — the “us” got bigger.
‘So proud of my mothers’
Thompson, the Brightpoint home visitor, drives all over St. Clair, Randolph and Madison counties to visit the 17 families on her caseload, typically for one hour twice a month.
When she visits the Mitchell household, 2-year-old MaLiyah runs to the door to greet her.
“My baby loves her,” Jasmine Mitchell said. “Ms. Vivian’s a joy to be around. She’s doesn’t feel like a stranger to us. She’s more like a grandma.”
In her role as a home visitor, Thompson helps parents to ensure their children are ready for preschool. When it comes to recommending families for the Needs Among Us program, she takes her responsibility seriously.
“I wouldn’t recommend them if I didn’t feel they’re working so hard to take care of their children,” Thompson said. “I’m so proud of my mothers.”
For Mitchell, the combination of Brightpoint’s home visiting program and the Needs Among Us support has been “life changing,” she said. She works as a student supervisor at a local school, but struggles to make ends meet with rising food, housing and child care costs.
About two years ago, she was facing foreclosure on her home when Needs Among Us stepped in and paid the balance due and one month in advance.
“I thought there was no way on God’s green earth,” Mitchell said. “They literally saved me from losing my house.”
Her car was the other problem, needing repairs well beyond her means and beyond the value of the vehicle. Now equipped with new wheels, she hopes to return to college in the fall at Southern Illinois University, where she was studying business administration before the pandemic hit and she paused to raise her children.
She has a nickname for her new car, a white 2012 Ford Escape.
She calls it Dove.
“It’s like it just fell out of the sky and into my lap,” Mitchell said.