“I didn’t start out thinking I would do this kind of work. I got a degree in criminology. But I started working at children’s services and going out into the community and hearing people’s stories. I love listening and seeing how I can help. So I knew I wanted to do something with connecting people to resources and that’s what really led me to this work. But what I see is that there are so many resources and the residents just don’t know what the next step is. They need an ID, they need a job, they need housing.

I can’t speak for all residents, but a lot of the times I hear, they just don’t know where to start. And the organizations offering the resources want to help, but it can be exhausting and overwhelming to navigate. They talk to the wrong person or they don’t have all the information they need.

Essentially, we’re all trying to do the same thing. We all have the same purpose of serving the South Side, so let’s use all of our powers together to uplift the residents. In a perfect world, they would be successful at accessing all the resources. That’s what South Side Thrive is trying to fix. We’re trying to bring everyone together and open up communication so that no one falls through the cracks.”

Sarah Schuster is a Community Outreach Specialist with South Side Thrive Collaborative, a network of people working together to uplift the South Side of Columbus.