Love INC coming to the Heart of the Hills

A group of community members from the Hill City area are looking to help expand the very popular Love INC of the Black Hills into the Heart of the Hills. 

The mission of this group is to mobilize churches and transform lives and communities in the name of Christ. So far three churches are involved: Community Lutheran, Saint Rose of Lima, and the Little White Church. 

Representatives from each church, along with several community members, spent 12 weeks exploring what outreach programs are currently available in the Hill City area and what the area is lacking. The group honed in on several needs, including children’s clothing and rides for people with a lack of transportation. There is also a need for elder care and possibly a need for children’s daycare. One thing the group also noticed is there are many food opportunities for individuals but people are not necessarily accessing them.

The group will be referred to as Love INC Heart of the Hills.

The idea for this program  came to Natalie Cutler several years ago.

“I always thought Love Inc was a good ministry,” she said, saying she liked the way it was values and relationship based.

Cutler wished it was available in Hill City. 

About six years ago Cutler explained she tried to get help for someone in Hill City. At that time Love INC didn’t have the resources to reach outside of Rapid City. Cutler was disappointed and thought “we need this in Hill City. How can we help Love INC of the Black Hills expand?”

More recently she was helping the secretary at The Little White Church field some phone calls on a day that was quite overwhelming. There was obvious frustration due to the high demand of people in need. That’s when Cutler knew that it was time to revisit the idea of having a Love INC in Hill City.

“I knew Love INC was looking to start Love INC Hometown now that they’re established and have the capacity to grow,” she said.

Cutler took action and started talking to many people.

“I just started calling people who I thought might be interested. I wanted as many churches involved as possible,” she said.

That became the exploratory phase of Love INC Heart of the Hills.

Just what Love INC Heart of the Hills is going to do remains to be seen. The implementation phase that the group is currently involved in will likely take six months to a year. Yet the group has already begun to offer free classes entitled “When Helping Hurts” that offer a different framework for thinking about poverty and its alleviation. The classes occur each Sunday at 1 p.m. at Community Lutheran and Monday at 6:30 p.m. at St Rose. The classes are similar to those life skills classes offered in Rapid City by Love INC under the umbrella of Life INC. 

These classes help foster community and relationships, an essential part of the overall mission of Love INC.

“The life  classes are one of the areas that Love INC  Heart of the Hills can make happen,” said Cutler. Cutler also believes Heart of the Hills can piggyback on the Clothe-A-Kid program that Love INC in Rapid City runs.

Clothe-A-Kid helps children start the school year with confidence. As with all Love INC programs, Love INC Heart of the Hills will be relationship centered and values and faith-based. At its core there are four values Love INC adheres to: you are loved, you belong,  you have choices and you have something to offer. Cutler explains “as we bring Love INC to Hill City we keep those four things in mind.” 

Love INC is not a crisis center but can help in many ways.

“We put offers out and people accept them or they don’t,” said Cutler. What ends up happening from this point on is not certain. Cutler knows that whatever the group decides to do they want to do well. She would also like ideas from other churches that may not have yet heard about this program.

“What we are planning is that we can either piggyback off of ministries already going in Rapid City and/or start some ministries that will be tailored more specifically to needs we found in the Heart of the Hills area.  The key is finding ministry areas that church members in our community are passionate about and then offering connection points in those areas,” she said.

The group is working toward being all inclusive of the greater Hill City area  and is committed to the non denominational effort.

Community members who want to be a part of this or learn more are invited to attend a free Love INC Heart of the Hills vision luncheon on Feb. 28 at 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Little White Church. RSVP at LoveINConline.com and choose the Hill City location.