SENT Inc. is wrapping its arms around the southeast Topeka community with its newest services.
Starting in late August, SENT will provide an array of new services, including more health and food accessibility in the Avondale East Building, 455 S.E. Golf Park Blvd.
Sent members also are hosting an open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, July 22, at the Avondale East Building to showcase the new services and changes to its facilities.
What is SENT?
SENT stands for strengthening and equipping neighborhoods together. The East Topeka-based charity works to provide services in the midst of a resource desert.
"What we've been doing here at the Avondale East Care center has been building a resource hub," interim executive director Johnathan Sublet said. "So, part of that means making the space that we have in the building available to others, because a part of our goal in community development is making resources both accessible and available.
"So, making them available includes giving them space here in the community because we are in a transportation desert."
SENT provides an array of wraparound services, from housing and development endeavors to behavioral health and community health.
"Community development is not about removing all the hurdles in someone's life, because that's like trying to boil the ocean," Sublet said. "You can't do it. Community development focuses on using our resources, our relationships and our platforms to help lower the hurdles so that people can see over them and take their next jump in their life."
Partnership with Sunflower Wellness Solutions
Sunflower Wellness Solutions is a local wellness exam clinic that also provides specimen collection and other testing.
Clinical operations and patient care manager Trisha Osier said one of the appealing aspects of working with SENT would be to branch out and let more people know about their services.
"I think for me personally, I feel really good about it," Osier said. "I'm looking forward to it, and I'm really excited about it. I'm hoping that we can encourage and empower the folks that are going to utilize those services and give them a place where they can come and feel comfortable and receive care in a way and at a level that they deserve and feel."
The employees at Sunflower have partnered with SENT to provide multiple services. Below are the available services listed, which can be sent to various health insurance program.
- Blood/urine collection: $25.
- Pre-employment/random drug screens: $25.
- Legal drug screens/therapeutic monitoring: $25.
- General sellness testing: $123. This includes Metabolic Panel, CBC, Lipids, TSH. Same-day results with follow-up call available.
- Comprehensive test menu: 2100+ tests/panels available. Tests can be sent out or run in-house by LifeTech.
- Such specialized panels as pregnancy, prenatal wellness, glucose tolerance, Hep B/C, HSV, syphilis and gonorrhea/chlamydia tests are available.
- Fertility and hormone testing are also available.
Services will begin Aug. 27 and will take place from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays and from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursdays. Osier said she would also like to partner with other organizations in town to provide these services to other Topeka neighborhoods.
Massage therapy partnership
Massage therapist Randy White has worked in his profession for 36 years and is a member of the partnering church.
"I actually attended church at Fellowship Hi-Crest," White said, "and I was excited to hear about the different other health and wellness things that will be going along."
White will offer 20-minute sessions in a massage chair for $20, 20- to 25-minute table massages for $35 and 50-minute table massages for $65. However, prices can fluctuate depending on financial needs.
"Massage helps in a lot of different ways," White said. "It definitely is a stress reliever. It helps for all kinds of different muscle aches, from lower back pain to sciatic pain, which is a pain down the leg."
One of the options for the table session will be prenatal massages, which White said have huge benefits for pregnant women, including hormone regulation, improved sleep quality, better immune quality and a reduction in swelling.
His services will begin Aug. 27 and will available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays.
Partnership with Pediatric Connections
Pediatric Connections is an Overland Park-based mental health organization that specializes in helping children succeed in activities of daily living in the home, school and community, according to its website.
Sublet said many members of the community — including himself — take their kids to get the organization's care.
"Over a couple of years, we've been talking about, 'Man, it would be nice to have this in town' and so we finally convinced Deana (Pediatric Connections leader Deana Lesher) to take the jump," Sublet said.
For these services, community members will need to go to the Pediatric Connections' website and schedule an appointment with them.
Sublet said the slots are filling up quickly and he hopes to expand mental health availability for children and adults by potentially partnering with Washburn University students studying in various mental health-based subjects.
Southside Filling Station Food Pantry
Also beginning Aug. 27, community members will have access to a food pantry that will be open three times a week.
SENT is using a "client choice" model that will have make the experience still fell like users are going to a grocery store and shopping.
"They can come and shop just like they would at a grocery store," Sublet said. "Then our case managers that are involved with that are going to proactively look at resources that our friends and neighbors in the community may be eligible for, but they're currently not taking advantage of, and they're going to proactively try to connect them with those services."
Before this, SENT would have a second Saturday market titled "The SE Topeka Market," where there was a free resource table, and venders could take Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
This market has been closed for the past few months as SENT has been working on preparing the food pantry. Now that the pantry will open in August, the market will also reopen and continue its operations every second Saturday.
What to look out for from SENT in the future
Sublet said the organization is always looking for more ways to grow and new people to partner with to continue building a full resource hub.
"We're hoping that the city sees our efforts and not only applauds those efforts," he said, "but that the city and other interested partners will come in and partner with us so that we can finish the build out of what has been identified as a stated need so many times in our city."
Another upcoming project Sublet said to keep an eye out for is the child care program, which has 35 available slots. Because of the community's need for child care, they will soon expand to 85 slots.
Most Popular
Comments / 0