From left: Tedford Housing’s Pauline Hanson, Damariscotta Baptist Church Pastor Marilee Harris, Mariellen Whelan of St. Patricks Church, Ecumenical Fund Manager Alden Sproull, and Lonnie Anderson of the Second Congregational Church.
The Ecumenical Council on Homeless Prevention was honored by Tedford Housing on Thursday evening, June 14, with the Tedford Home Award for the council’s work in homeless prevention.
The Ecumenical Council on Homeless Prevention is a coalition of five Lincoln County churches: St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, the Damariscotta Baptist Church, St. Patrick’s Church of All Saints Parish, the Second Congregational Church, and Water of Life Lutheran Church. These churches started meeting in 2010 to look for ways of preventing homelessness in Lincoln County. In June 2013, at the request of the Ecumenical Council on Homeless Prevention, Tedford Housing assigned a case manager, Pauline Hanson, to Lincoln County. Hanson comes to the Second Congregational Church each week during food pantry hours to meet with individuals and families with housing or other homelessness-related crises.
The churches on the council are committed to helping families financially in whatever way Hanson directs them, in order to prevent homelessness. This may be risk of eviction, lack of security deposits, or other crises. The council has also established an Ecumenical Council Fund at the Damariscotta Baptist Church, for church and individual contributions to homeless prevention.
