THELEAVEN.ORG | VOL. 42, NO. 38 | MAY 14, 2021
A HAPPY WARRIOR
LEAVEN PHOTO BY JAY SOLDNER
Leavenworth Interfaith Community of Hope executive director Myranda Agnew, middle, and case management volunteer Linda Raach visit with Kevin Hawkins.
‘God pull’ led new director to Leavenworth interfaith effort By Maggie MacFarland Phillips Special to The Leaven
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EAVENWORTH — The numbers are going up all around the country. And Leavenworth is no exception — it is seeing both an increase in people experiencing chronic homelessness and an increase in unsheltered populations. Myranda Agnew is the new director at Leavenworth’s Interfaith Community of Hope, which serves county residents experiencing poverty and homelessness. But it is not necessarily Leavenworth residents who are contributing to the rising numbers. She said individuals are coming to them from California, Texas and Nebraska. Often, she explained, someone has abandoned them after taking advantage of them, and quite a few are simply dropped off at the gates of Fort Leavenworth. “And they just end up wandering,”
she said. The city is meeting the local effects of this nationwide problem with true communitywide solutions, as public, private and religious groups working together to shelter those who go without. Finding a way to help these individuals return home is one of many difficulties Agnew confronts at Community of Hope. Since the pandemic, those difficulties have also included an increase in female guests and families showing up at their night shelter. There is, she said, “a lot of problemsolving.” But Agnew is a happy warrior, uncowed by the challenges of serving the marginalized during a oncein-a-century pandemic. Having recently taken over from Interfaith founder Sister Vicki Perkins, SCL (“huge shoes to fill,” Agnew effuses), she brings to her new position a bachelor’s degree in management and human resources,
an MBA from Webster University in St. Louis and 14 years’ experience as director of human resources for Leavenworth city schools.
‘Whatever you have for me’ A few years ago, Agnew says she and her husband “felt the God pull” to make some professional changes in their lives. Inspired by her husband’s decision to leave the field of education for a job as worship leader at a local church, she overcame her initial reservations about leaving behind the stability of her own career to pursue God’s will for her life — whatever that might be. “All right, God, whatever you have for me,” she remembered thinking, “not really knowing that there really was something.” Then, last year, after assisting with Community of Hope’s fundraiser in a volunteer capacity, she
was approached by Sister Vicki about taking over the shelter. Agnew has found her HR skills are well-suited to Community of Hope’s operations. She sees parallels between her work in education and her new vocation — she said the schools’ emphasis on restorative justice and faculty training on dealing with students experiencing poverty have been particularly helpful.
Fully community sponsored in every sense When Agnew characterized the way community support has buoyed Community of Hope — both before and during the pandemic — the reasons for her hope become evident. Community of Hope volunteer and Army veteran Rolly Dessert described a spirit of ecumenical >> See “COMMUNITY” on page 10