Othello Matters open house to help community members in need

OTHELLO — Adams County Integrated Healthcare Services is partnering with several other local and regional agencies to hold an open house event called Othello Matters from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Othello Church of the Nazarene, meant to help community members in need.

The event’s coordinator, Integrated Healthcare Services Mental Health Counselor Charlotte Hillman, said the event is open to the public.

“We are reaching out to the homeless community in our area and we're going to provide a warm meal to them. Classic Grill’n is going to be donating the meal,” she said. “Then we're holding it at the Othello Nazarene Church, and they are a Narcan distributor, so they will be distributing Narcan to anybody who wants it or needs it. I'll also have (Opportunities Industrialization Center) there and they are a resource for people for funding and that sort of thing and other supports in the Adams and Grant County area.”

Othello Church of the Nazarene’s Helping Hands community outreach program will be attending the event, as well as the Tri-Cities health care organization Kadlec. 

“HopeSource will be there. They are a new agency that's going to come to the Adams County area to kind of help with housing in our area. (Columbia Basin Health Association) will be there. They're gonna provide some toothbrushes and some hygiene stuff, chapstick, those sorts of things, and be there to help kind of provide some medical information so if people need help filling out medical information,” Hillman said. “Our agency will have Emergency Housing, (Women, Infants and Children), and Mental Health Services there for anybody that wants resources. The Housing Authority will also be there for anyone who wants to fill out an application.”

Hillman elaborated further on the event’s offerings.

“(Department of Social and Health Services) will have their mobile van for anyone who needs food stamps or has lost their EBT card, or needs to qualify for anything,” Hillman said. “At the same time, we're also going to hand out coats, sleeping bags, blankets, socks, gloves and hats that have been donated. I started collecting those in I think December and then we'll collect them up until tomorrow. If people continue to bring them in, that's fine up until the event as well. So we just want to make sure that everybody that's kind of out in the cold and doesn't have a warm place to stay, has at least one item to help keep them warm, and a good meal provided to them.”

Hillman said she hopes the event continues to grow in numbers in the future. 

“We hope for it to continue to be a yearly thing,” she said. 

The event’s potential attendance is up in the air, according to Hillman. 

“I don't know because this is kind of the first year we're doing it, it'll kind of be our trial run. So we're hoping that we have enough food and I’m still waiting to hear back from some agencies, hoping that they’ll partner with us. And then after this year, we'll kind of have an estimated head count to know what we need to do to bring it to the future,” Hillman said. “I’m just looking forward to see what the turnout is going to be. It can either go really well or we're gonna have nobody show up, but from what I hear I think we're going to have a good turnout … If nobody shows up, we'll just know how to plan for it better in the future.”

Hillman talked about why she started the event.

“I grew up in this town, so I have a heart for our community, so I wanted to do something to reach those that don't necessarily always get reached,” she said. “They’re kind of forgotten about because people just assume that they chose that lifestyle and that's not always the case. So I want to make sure that their needs are met as well, so they're not forgotten.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.

    Exterior of the Othello Church of the Nazarene, located at 835 S 10th Ave, where the Othello Matters open house event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. providing resources to the community.
  

    Othello-based mobile food vendor Classic Grill’n, pictured, will be providing a hot meal to attendees of the Jan. 25 Othello Matters event at the Othello Church of the Nazarene.