Pike Outreach had a ribbon cutting and opened up the new Pike Outreach Remote Work Center in the basement of the building that houses the food pantry at 306 Bridge Street in Waverly.
“The Pike Outreach Remote Work Center is funded through the workforce board’s GRIT (growth, resilience, initiative, and transformation) program fund,” said Crystal Keaton, Workforce and Development Board Area 1 Director.
Keaton said that the Workforce Development board couldn’t do what they do without the help of the Pike County Commissioners.
“It’s things like this that make communities special,” Commissioner Tony Montgomery said. “Most of these organizations don’t have the resources or money themselves to get these things done, so you have to use other organizations that come together to make these kinds of things happen. In my mind that is what makes these kinds of things special.”
Montgomery said when he first heard the term “remote work center,” he didn’t understand what it was.
“These remote work centers, I know, out at Latham, I was at one not long ago and I didn’t understand,” Montgomery said. “When you can have a job anywhere, you live in Pike County, you come here and do your work,” Montgomery said. “You have a job in California, you have a job anywhere and you do it from here.”
Montgomery mentioned that in a rural area without broadband Internet available to everyone remote work centers are great things.
“So until more broadband Internet is available in the rural areas, this is where you come. This is where you come to, to make those things happen, to have those jobs, all those positions to make a difference, you know, and it’s just a special, it really is.”
Montgomery said that what Pike Outreach does as a whole is reach and help people who need help. Montgomery said that everybody needs help sometimes and there is nothing wrong with asking for help.
“Most of us are able to reach out to friends, family, somebody that can help us, but not everybody’s in that position,” Montgomery said. “You know, they may live here, not have a lot of families, they may not have a lot of friends. So they’ve gotta come to public places like this to get that help.
“But if they can come to organizations like this and get some help, maybe just a nudge, maybe just a ‘you’re doing fine’ That’s enough, just sometimes a little bit of positivity in somebody’s life is enough to set them on a different path,” Montgomery said.
Keaton explained what features the remote work center would have.
“This space that we are going to do tours of later today is going to help out people who are working remotely in virtual jobs, work that might be done from home and work that might be done by computers,” Keaton said. “We have spaces for individuals to come in and utilize broadband Internet.”
Keaton there are also private rooms where individuals can receive counseling services and other services.
Our goal is to help the people who come already find living wage employment through remote work at this center.
Pike Outreach is a faith-based, non-profit organization. It’s the only choice food pantry and homeless shelter in Pike County, according to President of Pike Outreach Val Francis.
“One of the unique things about the pantry is it’s like going to Kroger,” Francis said. “You have a cart, you go through and you choose and select the items you want. We’re very blessed because both Kroger and Wal-Mart allow us to pick up produce and products from them three days a week.”
Francis said that the pantry has been serving residents of Pike County for more than 50 years and is staffed 100% by volunteers.
“We serve approximately 400 households per week,” Francis said. “We’re funded by donations from charities, churches and businesses.”
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