Green Salvationists 3
Salvation Army B&B 14
Life skills training 10
High Council 15 Profile 11
Wellness 18
NEW FRONTIER FEBRUARY 2014 Volume 32, Number 2
INSIDE this issue: Green Salvationists
As American family changes,
Camper follow up
The Salvation Army
For many people of faith, care for God’s creation is a primary lens through which to view that faith. GREEN PAGE 3
Initiative ensures that once a child leaves camp, The Salvation Army stays in touch. CAMP PAGE 12
Bed and breakfast
Angoon Corps runs B&B to support Army ministry and provide a service to the village. ALASKA PAGE 14
Expanding wellness
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Exploring National Headquarters’ Wellness for All report. HEALTH PAGE 18
mission to help remains
adapts to increased family diversity BY SARAH PARVINI
I
n her 16 years of service at The Salvation Army, Ana Aguirre has seen the American family change before her eyes. As program director for the Zahn Memorial Center, an emergency shelter for families in downtown Los Angeles, Aguirre is in constant contact with those in need. She helps single parents, interracial families and inmate parents, who make up much of the change to the typical family the country once knew. Each day, she does her part to get these families back on their feet, providing them with not only shelter, but guidance. Young mothers increasingly pour into the center, she said. “Right now we have a woman in her late 20s who has a 14-yearold child,” Aguirre said. “They have kids when they are very young. Most have GEDs or nothing at all.” Today, it is not uncommon for a woman to be unmarried when they give birth to their first child. Some 40 percent of
HOMELESS 2 HOME BY CHRISTIN DAVIS
women without a college degree—and 57 percent who have a high school diploma or less—are single mothers, according to The New York Times. Yet another type of struggling American family—a byproduct of the United States’ high jailing rate—is the family scraping by with one incarcerated parent. An estimated 2.7 million children nationwide have a parent in jail, according to research by the Pew Charitable Trusts. At the Zahn Memorial Center, single mothers often cope with incarcerated fathers. Aguirre points to one mother, just 21 years old, with two infants. Another, also in her 20s, seeks assistance with finding housing and care for her FAMILY PAGE 6
When the California Highway Patrol (CHP) recently called The Salvation Army, Alicia Morales headed for the freeway. A homeless camp there received an eviction notice and the CHP invited the Army to be there with services for those in need. Morales, as the clinical director for The Salvation Army Transitional Living Center and Homeless 2 Home programs in Ventura, Calif., had plenty to offer. “We found a woman who had dug stairs to get to her camp, created her own fence, had a rug on the floor, a basket for her shoes, and a flower in a vase on the table,” Morales said. “She had respect for her surroundings and pride in what she had, but she wanted help.” Morales works to assist individuals like this woman who are living on the HOMELESSNESS PAGE 9
Committee builds trust between law enforcement and immigrants
The Salvation Army
P.O. Box 22646 Long Beach, CA 90802-9998
Resources aim to raise crime reporting and reduce victimization BY VIVIAN GATICA Within the United States’ immigrant population, many believe reporting a crime is not an option. Law enforcement and local charities in Eagle County, Colo., formed the Eagle County
Law Enforcement Immigrant Advisory Committee in 2010 to build trust between the police and immigrant community, raise crime reporting and reduce victimization, and it’s seeing results. “Many who are born in other countries may not have the same level of trust of law enforcement as we would hope they have,” said Police Chief Dwight Henninger of the Vail (Colo.) Police Department and co-chair of the program. “I think no matter what some-
body’s immigration status is, it’s important that they feel comfortable reporting when they are a victim of a crime.” Henninger first approached Megan Bonta, community integration services coordinator for Catholic Charities, to help start the committee by inviting representatives of neighboring organizations to join, including The Salvation Army in Vail. The organizations function as mediators between immigrants IMMIGRATION PAGE 12