Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Scott Foster, founder and executive director of The Journey Home, moved in 1990 to Nashville for a job in corporate America. However, the seed of his desire to help those who need a hand up in life was planted when he had a religious experience during high school. It took 22 years for that seed to bear fruit, but when God called a second time, Foster went into action. The result is The Journey Home.
The Journey Home is a part of Foster’s faith journey. While it began with his “call from God” in 1982, then he had no idea how to fulfill that calling. So, he completed high school, and went on to college. He studied business and engineering. He ended up in the business world.
“I was in the home center business when I was offered the opportunity to manage my own store in Nashville,” explained Foster. “I took the opportunity. Once here, we discovered that we loved Middle Tennessee. We wanted a place a little bit outside of town to settle down. We found Murfreesboro in 1993 and fell in love with it.”
Eventually he began working for an international restaurant equipment business called EcoLab. It was while managing a five-state area, sitting in traffic on I-240 in Memphis on a business trip, that he had another experience with God.
“I came under conviction that now was the time to make a choice about launching out and serving people,” he shared. “I knew that meant I had to leave corporate America and give this my full attention. So, at the end of 2004, after transitioning out of that business and leaving it in good hands, I launched out into what would become The Journey Home.”
His change of careers drew him back to school in 2005 to get training in social work and social psychology, plus he visited many ministries and missions throughout the South to learn how people did things in different areas to help those who were experiencing homelessness or housing instability. He learned a lot in a year and a half. In mid-2006, he launched The Journey Home with his friend from First United Methodist Church, Geneva Poss. They had worked together on church missions over a number of years.
“Geneva, who will be retiring in August, partnered up with me and several wonderful people who served on my original board of directors to start street outreach out of our vehicles,” said Foster. “I typically tried to help by putting guys to work renovating the first outreach center that we had, and Geneva helped a lot of women living in motels or otherwise who had children, helping them get back on their feet. In 2009, we opened our first outreach center. We were very blessed to have that old place.”
Their first center was a true community effort, not only by some of the men who would benefit from it, but also from other people who cared. Early in the process they found a building thanks to Jack Robertson. Robertson believed in what they were doing, giving them a very favorable rent with Foster’s promise to fix up the building. Foster and his band of supporters used the small amount of funds they had to invest into the organization to do the build-out, and a couple of contractors in the community who believed in the mission helped. These contractors donated their time and many materials to put in the electric, water and mechanical systems.
“Often times they used left over parts from other projects,” noted Foster. “I used to tease people that if you came in and looked at all the emergency exit signs, you wouldn’t find two that matched because they all came out of other buildings. It is not often that people want to invest financially in an idea. People want to invest when they can get involved. And we needed to have a place for people to come together, help people in need and get involved. To begin the process of community serving community.”
As the organization grew, it became obvious that they needed a new building. After a three-year campaign, during which The Journey Home raised $6.2 million, they were able to build their brand new 20,000-square-foot community resource center on Old Salem Road. Recently, the City of Murfreesboro voted to sell land they owned adjacent to the new center to the organization for $1. That action freed up $180,000 to put into programming. The new property will allow The Journey Home to have a park-like area, additional parking, needed storage and a pavilion to use for meetings and events when the weather is nice.
“I am not sure if the old building was more ready to get rid of us, or we were more ready to get rid of it when we moved last year,” chuckled Foster. “But it served us well over many years. However, we couldn’t be more excited about this season we launch into. This new building is a great tool. It provides us with the resources that will be impacting the lives of families with children, impacting the lives of senior adults and folks in our community who are struggling with different issues.”
The previous location at 308 W. Castle Street was about one third the size of the new location. Because of the limited space, the organization was only able to offer the most basic needs. Expanded services are available at the new facility, including 10 much needed short-term, interim housing units for families; an expanded wellness center providing low-barrier medical and mental health care; expanded mail services, as well as computer and internet access; a place to do laundry and a much improved "market" offering clothes and food staples. There is also space for coaching services, classes and community activities.
Short-term interim housing will allow the organization to provide families with stability and safety while finding permanent housing. This minimizes the traumatic effects of homelessness on children, and provides a foundation for the parents to work on long-term solutions. Families staying on site will also be able to access many other services The Journey Home now offers, including case management, access to job training, mental health counseling and budgeting to break the cycle of homelessness. The center also provides short-term assistance with deposits and rent in the marketplace for households that are ready to maintain their own place and access to its 35 homes and apartments scattered throughout the county where families with more complex issues transition toward self-reliance over one to two years.
“Services are now available to help people in crisis in our community that have never before been put under one roof, brought together to help overcome so many obstacles that those in crisis face,” explained Foster.
The Journey Home operations budget comes from fundraising; donations from individuals, businesses and other organizations; rents from apartments and homes that the organization owns; as well as government grants.
“The work that we do is such a testament to the caring and giving nature of this community, because we have well over 1,000 unique volunteers who help us throughout the year working in our programs and in our center,” added Foster. “Without them, it just can’t happen. And people do not always understand the mission of The Journey Home. It is not simply taking care of people who are struggling to provide things that they need, although that is important. But, in our mission we want people to become more self-reliant and more self-determined so we encourage faith, housing, economic stability, wholeness and community. We are trying to help people move in a different direction from where they are to a place where they can fully participate in being a part of our community. It really is community serving community to help people move beyond where they are today.”