SSVDP Creatively Partners With Police
EUGENE — When St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County partners with the Eugene Police Department, the concept of “one-stop” social services is carried to a new level.
In January, Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey and representatives from the City of Eugene Police Department and St. Vincent de Paul celebrated the grand opening of the combined Richard Lindholm Service Center and Bethel Public Safety Station.
The Lindholm Center on Highway 99 in Eugene is home to St. Vincent’s Social Service Office, which assists 200–300 people every day with its self-sufficiency services, which offers job assessment, training and placement to people with multiple barriers to employment. The building also houses the Eugene Service Station which provides showers, phone access, laundry facilities and referral services to homeless adults, and Second Chance Renter’s Rehabilitation, a program that educates people with poor credit or rental history to be responsible home renters.
The center has recently become home to the Eugene Police Department’s Bethel Public Safety Station.
The Bethel Public Safety Station, formerly housed in a cramped office at the PeaceHealth Clinic in West Eugene, offers community-based policing with a primary focus on crime prevention.
Available services include taking police reports, community outreach, educational services, volunteer opportunities, and information and referral to outside assistance programs, including those provided by the Lindholm Center.
Because of PeaceHealth’s growth and increased need for space at the clinic, the Public Safety Station needed to find a new home. Funding for the expansion of the Lindholm Center to include the Bethel Safety Station came in part from a Department of Justice, Bethel Weed and Seed grant.
“The new offices make a big impact in the ability to offer services and community-based supervision,” said Chris Brosemer, Lane County parole and probation officer.
Three probation officers supervise nearly 300 offenders. The larger, more central office space has afforded increased safety, and the officers can make more unscheduled home visits. Such visits have uncovered guns, knives, drugs, and even articles used for identity theft.
The expansion of the building has provided the St. Vincent de Paul Social Service Office with a new, homey environment to better serve those in need. Debbie Dufault, manager of the Eugene Service Station, said that some clients were concerned about the close proximity of the police, but most fears have been laid to rest.
Having the Eugene Police Department as a neighbor has increased the safety of the entire building, Dufault said.
St. Vincent de Paul’s Richard Lindholm Service Center and Bethel Public Safety Station is a unique partnership — one-stop services to provide a helping hand.