Beginning on Oct. 9, a 24-hour livestream outside Inner City Mission, 714 N. Seventh St., will discuss the challenges of homelessness. The livestream, which starts at 2 p.m. and is part of a nationwide effort called Conversations on a Bench, will feature current and former residents of the faith-based nonprofit’s long-term transitional living program.
Scott Payne, executive director of Inner City Mission in Springfield, said the livestream will explore the relational effects of faith and the church’s impact on people who were previously homeless.
“We’re going to have about an hour and a half of very intense videos of testimonies of people who’ve come through the mission,” Payne told Illinois Times.
He said that for all the diverse social service providers in the area, there’s a gap in caring for the spirit of people experiencing homelessness despite the growing trend of “wraparound services.”
“The nice thing about material things is it’s easier to give and we can feel like that we’ve really accomplished something – which we have – and I don’t want anybody to stop doing what they’re doing with the street homeless now,” he said. “But I want us to start thinking we have to go deeper than continuing to give just the physical things, that mentality is catching up in where you have now what they call wraparound services.”
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Payne said there is a place for faith-based conversations that could benefit people living without shelter, “When you start talking about having wraparound services for someone who is (unsheltered) – there’s just not enough money to pay somebody to be with someone all the time or to do more than just basically be able to check in and say, ‘Hey, how you doing?’”
Inner City Mission is one of two Illinois locations participating in the program. View the livestream here Oct. 9-10.
This article appears in October 2-8, 2025.
