SALVATION ARMY

The Salvation Army, founded in 1865 in London by a Methodist preacher named William Booth, has since spread to 127 countries, with 7,551 centers in communities across the U.S., including one in Havre.

Havre's Salvation Army started as the Salvation Army Emergency Services Church around the same time a major flood had devastated the area, 1914, Social Services Director Trina Crawford said, and the Christian charitable organization's services were severely needed. The faith-based nonprofit has since changed locations, dropped the four-walls-and-a-roof church aspect, added a thrift store and even started a reintegration program as of late last year.

The Army's original motto, Crawford said, was "Soup, soap and salvation."

"(Booth) just felt like the church wasn't doing enough. He would go into ... parts of London, England, and he'd see the drunks laying in the gutter and see the children and women that didn't have homes, that were begging and looking for food," she said. "He just knew that he needed to do something more, so his prayer to God was, 'God what do I do?'

"And so Salvation Army came about with lots of prayer and him trying to meet the addict - the sins, the crime, the yucky stuff - meet them where they're at."

The worldwide nonprofit organization operates on biblical precepts, and Havre's is no different, Crawford said.

"In the Bible, it talks about the widows and orphans - they need to be taken care of. It's a biblical command to take care of the needy," she said. "First we build that relationship, whether that be put a roof over their head, making sure they get food. Our first and foremost purpose is to show God to everybody and let people have the opportunity to meet God."

Over time, the Army's motto has changed from "Soup, soap and salvation" to "Doing the most good," and that, Crawford said, is exactly what the Salvation Army in Havre tries to do.

Emergency Services has been the foundation of how the organization tries to do good.

Crawford explained that emergency services, operated by her and one other employee, includes things like emergency rental assistance, emergency utility assistance, some lodging and various transportation services.

The thrift store is the more visible aspect of the operation. The store, which Crawford said opened sometime around 1965, employs five people and the money made goes to paying salaries and rent, and some of it goes into emergency services as well. A store manager, with the help of four other employees, sorts through the donations and then prices and puts the items on the shelf for sale.

But since there's usually not enough funding to meet the needs money also comes in from varius donors, as well things like the Red Kettle Campaign so commonly seen during the late-year holiday season. The Army, Crawford said, has even had a couple houses donated in the past, which were sold and the money piped into services.

The services address needs that are most often, are substance-related.

Substance abuse of some kind, Crawford said, is probably the biggest common denominator she sees among the needy and broken. She said the devastation caused by drugs, especially methamphetamine and prescription drugs, has soared in the last few years.

RISP - Reintegration into Society Program - the latest Army program, is a Christ-based accountability program aimed at working mostly with people ho are struggling with substance addiction issues. Those in the program, many of them also part of Hill County Drug or DUI Treatment Court, meet with mentors such as Crawford, to talk and work through their struggles.

Substance abuse leads down different avenues of brokenness, she said.

"What I see - I, Trina - is there is a huge amount of people that are not able, or are not willing, or not whatever, to work. And most of those people either have the drug addiction, or are physically or mentally unable to hold down a job," she said.

Affordable housing is another problem the Army has recognized and tries to tackle. Part of emergency services includes occasionally putting people who don't have a place to stay, up in a hotel. They are trying, Crawford said, to find a more permanent solution to the affordable housing aspect.

Whatever they do, the Havre Army, like most of the faith-based groups and organizations in town, works closely with other charities and organizations.

"I try really hard to work with other agencies in the community, like HRDC, which would be section 8, ministerial association - I do attend their meetings- soup kitchen, food bank," she said.

"Once in awhile, we get something that's a donation that doesn't really fit in anything for us, so I'll take it to the Boys and Girls Club. I've taken food to the food bank."

Crawford thought about someone in RISP, and with a wide grin, started talking about him.

The man joined RISP in December after having spent 100 days in jail for drug offenses, she started.

He had a couple of really rough days at the beginning, she said.

Crawford said she'd reach out to him, "making sure he knew somebody was there with him," and she met and talked with him everyday. Over time, she said, the man went through a total transformation.

"He totally turned his life around. He went from not believing in God to being baptized and being totally sold out on God. His life has been wonderful," she said. "He is doing a fantastic job, just because his mind has been renewed and rechanged, and he's stepping out of that addiction."