CRESTVIEW — Sharing Hands Network cofounder and CEO Esther Lynn Hemphill, eying expansion into North Okaloosa County, is emphatic about the one thing her organization does not want to do.
“The goodness that's being done already, we don’t want to upset that,” she said. “What we’re doing is being additive. My job is not to diminish what people are doing already.”
She just wants to make sure charitable organizations and community service providers know what each other can offer those in need. “We’re going to be the network that brokers that service,” she said.
Hemphill and her husband, Jon, founded the Destin-based Sharing Hands three years ago.
“All we knew was there was a gap, but we had no idea how to fill it,” Hemphill said during a Jan. 28 visit with Crestview Mayor David Cadle.
WHY IS IT NEEDED?
“People say, ‘Why is that needed?’” Hemphill said.
She answers, “‘Why is 9-1-1 needed?’”
“Say a mother is using paper towels for her baby. For her, a diaper is as critical a need as an ambulance for somebody who falls down. It’s a connection and resource network,” similar to a 9-1-1 operator and the police, fire department or EMS.
Hemphill said as many as 150,000 people in Northwest Florida are “food-insecure,” that is, “they have to choose between paying the bills and buying groceries,” she said.
“There are thousands of organizations existing to help those in need,” Hemphill said. “But the average person doesn’t know where to find them. Our mission is to connect those in need with those who can help.”
As Hemphill aspires to connect North Okaloosa County organizations to the Sharing Hands Network, she’s engaged marketing consultant Jeremiah Hubbard as a resource for charities.
A GO-TO RESOURCE
“Ninety percent of all charitable organizations don’t know how to use social media effectively,” Hubbard said. “They think if they post it on Facebook, everybody will see it.
"They’re just hoping — hoping — it’s going to go viral. These are things that make a difference in the social media world.”
Hemphill plans to host an informational breakfast in Crestview for charitable organizations such as cold weather shelters, soup kitchens, food banks, indigent medical care services, homeless care, and clothes closets in the coming weeks.
Sharing Hands can become those organizations’ go-to resource, such as for a shelter trying to help the hypothetical mother in need of diapers for her infant.
“Other than going out and buying a pack of diapers, I wouldn’t know what to do to help her,” Hubbard said.
“You can’t do it by yourself sometimes,” Hemphill said. “But if two or more get together, you can.”
What: Sharing Hands Network links charitable service providers with one another and those in need
Where: Headquartered in Destin, will link resources throughout Northwest Florida
Online: www.sharinghandsnetwork.org
Contact: 770-312-7518
F.Y.I.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Sharing Hands network coming to Crestview