Coalition of Charities work continuing

Services move from old hospital to Church of Nazarene

The  change in ownership of the former Cox Monett Hospital building from Life 360 to the Clark Community Mental Health Center prompted a move but not a suspension in services previously offered through the Life 360 Resource Center.
Rachel Leubbering served as project manager of Life 360, which acquired the hospital building from Cox Monett Hospital after the medical center moved. She changed hats with the sale of the building and the withdrawal of Life 360’s community outreach. Leubbering stayed on as property manager for the Clark Center. However, her bigger role coordinating the various not-for-profit services operating out of the old hospital fell under her duties as executive director for the Coalition of Charities, which organized five years ago.
When the Clark Center acquired for former hospital in September 2023, Leubbering told Brad Ridenour, chief executive officer of the Clark Center, that the Coalition of Charities would move. That would eliminate the overhead costs on the building, providing more funds to spend on services.
“We’ve always had a good relationship with Brad and the Clark Center,” Leubbering said. “We gave them nine-months’ notice. My ultimate goal is to help people to move forward and be self-sufficient. We have to do that where we have the lowest barrier for successes. Some people have an aversion to government mental health and would not come in the door at the hospital.”
Services through the Coalition of Charities moved to the Church of the Nazarene at 2142 State Highway 37, east of Race Brothers and accessed through the Farm Pro driveway. Leubbering has served as outreach coordinator for the church, which she has been affiliated with for the past three years.
“I’m a friendly person,” she said. “I want us to be friendly, warm and small-town, helping neighbors out. We’re about relationships, not check-a-box, onto-the-next-person transactions. I don’t want someone passed off to a new person for each new need.
“The church here is broken-people friendly. We can meet their tangible, material and spiritual needs all in one place.”
The Coalition of Charities has logged significant successes in the past five years. In that time, Leubbering said the various groups operating under the coalition’s umbrella represent more than 100 partners, including other non-profits, civic and service groups whose individual participants invested more than 100,000 volunteer hours, entirely without pay, operating by private donations or grants, without federal or state funding. Even Leubbering, who is paid to do church work, volunteers her service for free to the coalition.
“We’re people helping people,” she said. “We love our community. It shows in our results.”
Those results to date include:
- Helping just over 7,000 people;
- Finding housing for 110 people who were homeless;
- Aiding more than 300 people earn their General Education Development (GED) certificate;
- “Countless kids got to go back to their parents and out of the foster care system.”
Leubbering said the organization spends a great deal of time reaching beyond the current condition of its clients to find the root cause of their need.
“We have 15 percent poverty in our area,” she said. “If you probe down to the source of broken relationships, addiction and mental health problems, why people get evicted, go to jail and lose their kids, you find poverty. Nothing good comes from poverty. Our whole mission is to alleviate our area of poverty.”
Leubbering invites people seeking help to come to the coalition. Inquiries can be made by calling 417-772-3611.