Earlier this month, the Boulware Mission celebrated 99 years in the Owensboro community.
The mission began as the dream of a local school teacher, Milton Boulware, who wanted to help feed the poor and shelter the homeless. She and four colleagues founded the Gospel Center Mission, which was later renamed the Boulware Mission on May 23, 1921.
In its early days, it served as a faith-based settlement house and a place where neighborhood children could be supervised after school and feel safe. Today the Boulware Mission provides shelter services to displaced men, as well as a long-term self-sufficiency program aimed at helping clients become independent, contributing members of the community.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
The original Hall Street building was purchased and renovated at a cost of $2,500 in the early 1920s. More than half of the funds came from the Christian Men’s League and the rest through contributions from businesses and civic-minded residents of Owensboro.
The mission had been in operation less than a year when nine businessmen who had been supporting the project decided that is should be incorporated, and on April 11, 1922, the Gospel Center Mission was recognized as a non-profit corporation.
During the 1930s, a soup kitchen was established at the mission and as many as 300 people were fed per day. In 1950, after Milton’s 50 years of teaching, she decided to retire and devote all of her time to the mission.
By then, the Gospel Center Mission had 32 rooms. It was housing transients, operating a kindergarten class for poor children, and hosting prayer meetings and community programs. There were music lessons, a Homemakers class, Sunday school lessons and singing on Sunday afternoons.
By the early 1970s, more than 1,000 people participated monthly in the activities provided at the Mission. In the early 1990s, the Mission exclusively became a homeless shelter.
Leigha Taylor, executive director of the Boulware Mission, said it is very exciting to be celebrating 99 years of service to the greater Owensboro area.
“Members of our community tell me all the time about how Boulware has saved the life of one of their family members or friends,” she said. “It amazes me to think back at the number of lives that have been changed just over the last 10 years; it is overwhelming to consider how awesome that number is when you reflect on the past 99 years.”
In 2005, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment program was added.
Over the years, the work of the mission has adapted many times in order to meet the greatest needs of the community. As the mission’s drug and alcohol treatment program proved successful, it started to gain attention by the local courts, and judges began sending individuals to treatment and services as the mission in lieu of incarceration.
PRESENT DAY
Today, the mission provides clients with three meals per day, snacks, emergency clothing, personal hygiene items, secure shelter, case management services, outreach, advocacy, and referrals to local and regional resources along with follow-up services. The self-sufficiency program includes financial literacy, referrals for GED tutoring, employment skills, and licensed substance abuse treatment.
In addition to the residential services, several services are offered to the public, including an all-female substance abuse treatment program, and a public treatment program for men. Boulware primarily serves the Green River Area Development District (GRADD) of western Kentucky which includes the counties of Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, McLean, Ohio, Union and Webster.
Services provided by Boulware Mission are available 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
Money from the United Way, local and federal grants, churches and other organizations, and private contributors pay for the cost of daily operations and services.
Taylor said as they look to the future, the mission’s plan is to continue their tradition of service to the displaced population by providing housing, case management services, licensed substance abuse treatment, and more.
“We regularly evaluate the needs of the community and of the population we serve to make sure that we are doing everything we can to meet them,” she said. “Our hope is simply to continue to see lives change, one person at a time, because of the difference we have made.”
She said Boulware Mission would not be celebrating this milestone without the support of this community.
“When the Mission began, a settlement house was still a new concept, yet the community embraced Miss Milton Boulware’s vision and it became a reality,” Taylor said. “Since its beginning, we’ve been blessed to have great volunteers and strong boards, generous financial and in-kind support, and committed friends to pray for and with us.”
