Love Inc. and Family Promise outline countywide asset‑mapping effort to coordinate homelessness services in Melbourne

Christy Stewart, representing Love Inc., and Tara Pagliarini, executive director of Family Promise of Brevard and direct‑services chair for the continuum of care, briefed the council on a countywide asset‑mapping effort designed to align homelessness and social‑service responses geographically rather than relying only on countywide lists.

“Love, Inc. connects the calling of local churches to the struggles of the community,” Stewart said, explaining the organization’s role in coordinating churches and volunteers to meet residents’ needs. Stewart said Love Inc. will lead formation of a Melbourne geographic work group to catalog local assets and coordinate service delivery in partnership with the Brevard Homeless Coalition.

Tara Pagliarini described the broader continuum of care and how geographic work groups have been used in Brevard County. “It is led by the Brevard Homeless Coalition, and it’s made up of government, education leaders, our municipalities, our nonprofit partners, our faith partners,” Pagliarini said. She said the asset‑mapping effort began in 2023 as a Lehi Brevard Community Action Project and that the work has produced a model — including a 9‑2‑2 crew for zip code 32922 — where local stakeholders assemble a shared inventory of services and meet regularly to coordinate referrals and problem‑solve.

Speakers said the county approach uses a free mapping platform called Simpara to assemble local assets and tags drawn from the Florida Prosperity Initiative’s 10 root causes of poverty; the platform lets stakeholders add and update assets at the local level and then thread geographic maps into a larger “super map.” Pagliarini said localized work groups can also support initiatives such as implementation of “House Bill 13 65” (as cited in the presentation) and improve discharge planning and equity‑focused responses.

Audience members asked whether the work duplicates long‑standing faith‑sector efforts such as local sharing centers. Stewart and Pagliarini said the intent is coordination rather than replacement: the work groups bring existing agencies and faith partners together regularly to compare resources, identify gaps and jointly resolve problems. Pagliarini gave examples from Cocoa where local work groups helped secure a crosswalk and revealed previously unknown resources.

Both presenters requested that the City of Melbourne participate in and help convene a local geographic work group that will feed assets up to county systems such as 2‑1‑1. No formal council action or vote was recorded during the presentations.