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Walker leaders launch HOPE collaborative to connect families with local resources
Summary
A school, the police department and local churches and businesses are coordinating a new network — HOPE (Helping Others Prosper Everyday) — to connect Walker families to food, housing, mental-health and other services and to build a city resource hub.
Walker residents now have a coordinated local network to find help for food, housing, mental-health and other basic needs under a new initiative called the HOPE collaborative.
Brooke Johnston, principal at Zinsser Elementary School, and Walker Police Officer Mitch Harkema described the effort on the City of Walker podcast Made in Walker, saying the collaborative brings schools, churches, businesses and the police department together to share resources and refer residents to services.
The HOPE collaborative, which its organizers said has been active since the beginning of the year, aims to create a single place for residents to find help and to improve how frontline staff connect people to specific services. "Our purpose is truly, what the initiative is called, HOPE, Helping Others Prosper Everyday," Officer Mitch Harkema said on the podcast. He said the collaborative grew out of meetings among school, faith and police partners who saw overlapping assets and unmet needs.
Johnston said the school reached out to nearby…
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