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Hubbard City Transformation Team aims to support seniors
By Sarah Lehr
HUBBARD
Have you heard the one about the chaplain and the police officer?
The Hubbard City Transformation Team, founded in 2012, is a partnership among eight Hubbard pastors and Mayor John Darko, Service Director Dan Livingston, Safety Director Louis Carsone and Police Chief Jim Taafe. The team meets about once a month in the mayor’s office.
The CTT began as an effort to offer the support of chaplains to Hubbard police officers, said Dave Coxson, a pastor at Corner House Christian Church and a member of the CTT.
“We wanted to show the police officers that we care, and we know the difficulty of the service they render, and we are willing to walk alongside them in it,” Pastor Coxson said.
The program has since expanded. It now seeks to offer support for residents, as well, through initiatives such as a senior program.
The senior program, modeled after services in Liberty Township, provides weekly welfare check-in calls to Hubbard residents. The city also operates a transportation van for elderly or disabled residents.
About 20 people are now signed up for the check-in program, though the CTT has set a goal of 100, Pastor Coxson said.
CTT members say they hope to lessen the stigma around asking for help, and to recruit more residents to the program.
“Even the word ‘elderly’ can have a negative connotation,” Taafe said. “People don’t want to think they’re losing their independence or are being thought of as invalids.”
Pastors involved with CTT have the opportunity to receive some of the in-house training given to Hubbard police officers, such as instruction for administering Narcan. Narcan can save a patient’s life by causing him or her to resume breathing during an opioid overdose.
Additionally, the chaplains can join officers on patrol for “ride-alongs.”
In certain situations, if the officer chooses to allow the involvement of the chaplain, the pastor is able to defuse a situation or reach out to someone who needs support, Pastor Coxson said. The chaplains come armed with cards containing contact information for counseling on a variety of issues including depression, drug addiction and domestic violence.
“It gives me the opportunity to meet people living in crisis situations that I might not otherwise pick up on,” he said of ride-alongs. “Everybody in my congregation already knows I’m available if they need someone to talk to.
CTT member Eric Diehl, a pastor at Covenant Life Fellowship, said the program isn’t intended to foist religion on residents or violate the separation of church of state, but rather to encourage community-building.
“It’s not about preaching at people,” Pastor Diehl said. “People think about us as only being at the pulpit on Sundays, but being a part of the community should be more than that.”