Volunteer Ministry Center

The Volunteer Ministry Center (VMC) was established in 1987 and offers specialized services to the homeless and those within our community who are in crisis. VMC’s programs support its two-fold mission of ending and preventing homelessness through compassion, accountability, and results. VMC operates the following main programs: The VMC Resource Center, The Bush Family Refuge, Minvilla Manor, Street Outreach, Street Outreach Enhancement/Mobile Hygiene Services, the VMC Dental Clinic, The Foyer, and Caswell Manor. The goal for all clients is housing. Utilizing case management and the ‘Housing First’ approach to ending homelessness, VMC assists individuals into permanent housing and provides the resources necessary to maintain housing. Once housing is achieved, the case management relationship continues until a level of self-sufficiency is reached, thus ensuring success.

Ending and preventing homelessness

Receiving the Bank of America Neighborhood Champions grant allows leadership through webinars and funding for professional development. The top two executive leaders (Chief Executive Officer & Chief Development Officer) are near retirement. To ensure a succession that includes the transfer of “institutional knowledge,” it is essential to identify present staff members who can nurture leadership skills that support/assume those key positions. Required program and clinical directorship positions received evaluations due to expansion in services. Identifying and recruiting for these roles is necessary to ensure the quality of leadership and program service. Leadership training assists in identifying attributes for these positions and roles. With the expansion of program services comes the need to have sufficient resources. Leadership training identifies personnel for executive management in development and fundraising.

For the past 35 years, VMC has been an active and supportive partner within the Knoxville/Knox County Homeless Coalition network of 30-plus agencies. In addition, VMC staff continues to serve in numerous leadership positions within the organization, including multiple years as president. VMC executive staff work on local policy issues around homelessness through the City Mayor’s Roundtable on Homelessness, the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, and Compassion Knoxville. Through speaking engagements and scheduled tours of the VMC facilities, the local community has a first-hand opportunity to learn about evidence-based practices about the experience of homelessness. Also, through social media such as video blogs, Facebook, VMC’s website, Constant Contact, etc., the mission of VMC reaches over 5,000 people every month.

Deemed an essential service by our community, VMC positions itself to respond to the ongoing and emerging needs of community residents experiencing homelessness. As the world awakened to a “new normal” through COVID, VMC did the same. Since 2020, providing services during COVID has been an organizational “existential” test of resiliency and grit. The “existential” test was not about whether the organization could survive amidst the pandemic. The “crisis” emerged as flexibility and endurance due to the unplanned expansion of services and the challenge of recruiting additional staffing due to the influx of local, state, and federal COVID funding. With the increased funding came the need to expand the financial infrastructure with additional staff, resulting in hiring another accountant and a temporary accountant. As a result, VMC staff has increased by over 45% since 2020 while increasing capacity in its street outreach and housing stability services, rising 60% increase in the number of individuals and families served in those two categories. The Human Resource Department is resourced with web-based onboarding and personnel recording in keeping with the increased staffing. Meeting the housing needs of many of our community’s most vulnerable citizens, VMC is developing 48 apartments for single men and women who are chronically homeless. The project is made possible through a competitive round of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LITHC), two Tennessee state grants, Knoxville City grants, and local supporters. Completion is expected by the fall of 2022, with move-in of residents completed by the end of 2022. This project will require hiring six to eight staff amid an employment crunch. In essence, the story of VMC over the past year has had incredible and surprising growth with potential sustainability in the coming future.