03 Dec ‘They’ve done extraordinary work’: Indiana House Speaker highlights Shepherd Community’s service

When Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston recently delivered the General Assembly’s annual Organization Day speech, he decided to highlight Hoosiers’ compassion and resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And the work of Shepherd Community Center was a focal point of his message.

“Even through the toughest of times, we knew Hoosiers’ resiliency, along with the power of faith and prayer, would bring us through this storm,” Huston told his audience in the Indiana Statehouse. “To see compassion in action, consider the efforts of our local churches, and faith- and community-based organizations. They’ve done extraordinary work during this time…. Recently, I visited Shepherd Community Center, a faith-based organization located on the east side of Indianapolis.  It’s in my friend Rep. Blake Johnson’s district. Whether it’s providing food, offering education, supporting mental health or ensuring access to vaccinations, Shepherd seeks to serve its communities in every way possible. “

 At Shepherd, serving the community means providing meals to hundreds of neighbors each week, including take-home food bags for children in the center’s programs to ensure they have enough to eat on weekends.

It means delivering high-quality preschool for children on the near east side as well as safe and affordable childcare at the Minnie Hartmann center.

And it means working with the city of Indianapolis and other partners to provide health care, improve housing and meet other community needs through the Shalom Project.

Shepherd is able to meet these critical needs and others because of the strong support of churches, businesses and individuals who have stepped forward to partner in the essential work of breaking the cycle of poverty.

As this year nears an end, it’s a great time to say thank you to Shepherd’s amazing partners.

And to ask potential partners to pray and reflect on how they can, in House Speaker Huston’s words, put “compassion in action” in the year ahead.

To learn more about Shepherd’s service in the community, visit: https://shepherdcommunity.org/learn/programs/

To find out how you can make a lasting difference in our neighbors’ lives, go to: https://shepherdcommunity.org/serve/volunteer/

To help support Shepherd’s work to meet neighbors’ needs, donate at: https://shepherdcommunity.org/give/