{"id":19570,"date":"2012-08-18T11:25:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T18:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=19570"},"modified":"2021-03-15T15:27:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T22:27:17","slug":"spotlight-steve-baker-of-grace-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/08\/18\/spotlight-steve-baker-of-grace-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight: Steve Baker of Grace Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Steve Baker of Grace Resources is our ‘Person of the Month!’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER – When you hear about Grace Resources, you hear about Steve Baker, and vice versa.\u00a0 The two go hand in hand, and have for 21 years now.\u00a0 The AV Times caught up with Baker recently in his unassuming office, which consists of an old wooden desk, a decidedly downmarket chair, a file cabinet or two and an open door. The door is never shut… always open.<\/p>\n

Baker, long considered one of the \u201cfather figures\u201d of the Antelope Valley, opened up on a variety of topics, including his early upbringing, a typical day at Grace Resources, and how he handles the stress of it all.\u00a0 Read passages from our conversation below:<\/p>\n

Tell us how you got to where you are as the Executive Director of Grace Resources\u2026 how growing up, the way you did, prepared you for your role now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I was born [laughs]. I pretty much grew up here.\u00a0 I moved up here in ’59, and I was in 5th grade and I kinda grew up in the YMCA.\u00a0 It was a little house on Avenue J.\u00a0 I was, of all my friends, the only one with a single mom.\u00a0 I was on the eastside; all my friends were on the westside.<\/p>\n

I had the example of an early great dad from one of my friend’s parents who all got to me.\u00a0 They didn’t feel sorry for me, they just loved me.\u00a0 I grew up with their influence.\u00a0 And most of them went to First Baptist.\u00a0 In ’68, I became a Christian. Then I was running camps for the Y in high school, then later ran it for the church.\u00a0 Then I became a junior high youth pastor\u2026<\/p>\n

I was in the Navy, but I was home every weekend.\u00a0 So I ran the youth group on Sunday nights.\u00a0 I worked at Soledad Sands Park [today’s Thousand Trails in Acton] on Saturdays, Friday nights and part of Sundays.<\/p>\n

When I got on the staff of the church, I went to school part time.\u00a0 Azusa Pacific College had an extension here in Lancaster [at Antelope Valley College] where I took ministry classes.\u00a0 I went to Cal Baptist in Riverside and Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego for other ministry classes.<\/p>\n

So, I didn’t do the typical thing and go full time.\u00a0 I was working in the Navy and going to school when I wasn’t working\u2026 Then I went to San Diego and resigned from that church.\u00a0 Ended up coming home\u2026 and worked at Edwards for two years [as an intermediate maintenance overhaul mechanic].<\/p>\n

Then they asked me to start this… I took it, and never looked back.\u00a0 So in February of ’91, we found that building on Yucca and opened July 1st of ’91.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The former Lancaster Community Shelter was formerly run by Catholic Charities, but now Grace Resources runs it, and it has a new name \u2013 the Inn Between.\u00a0 Tell me about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Children are a priority.\u00a0 There are 115 beds, with 12 family units.\u00a0 Men are kept separate from women in every activity \u2013 sleeping, eating, bathing, laundering, etc. There’s an AA meeting Monday nights.\u00a0 It’s faith based.\u00a0 We also have a parenting class that happens at a church cater-cornered across the street.<\/p>\n

Then we do case management. The minute we get them in, we start to work on an exit strategy\u2026you’ve got 15 days to stay.\u00a0 So when they know they’ve got just 15 days, they begin to get serious about a place to stay.<\/p>\n

For the others, they have 15 days to stay, then they street it.\u00a0 Every time they come back they get another acute management meeting.\u00a0 We talk to them, once again, about where they’re gonna be. Where are they going to get a roof over their heads?\u00a0 What can we do to help you do that?\u00a0 And\/or get them home somewhere, and\/or get them to turn themselves into prison to get rid of their warrants so they can find a job, get their license back, or whatever it is.<\/p>\n

I’m a chaplain for the Sheriff’s Department, so I take them over there and help turn themselves in, help them serve a couple days or a week in jail.\u00a0 I’ve volunteered [as a Sheriff’s Department Chaplain] for 10 or 12 years.\u00a0 I’m kinda the closest dude, so when something goes down and they need me, they pick me up and say, \u2018we need you for a druggie, or such and such, or death row notification\u2026\u2019 whatever.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What kind of people do you see, typically, these days seeking help from Grace Resources?\u00a0 Are these the perennially homeless, newly unemployed, or something else going on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Too many of them lose their place, and they resigned themselves to the fact they’d better get their stuff together and rent a house, and then rent from somebody who’s losing [their house], or who doesn’t even own it sometimes.\u00a0 Within a couple of months they’re told they have to get out of it in three days.\u00a0 So they’re a mess, and it usually happens right after they get their monthly check or whatever their income is.\u00a0 And they have the whole three and a half or four weeks before they get more money.\u00a0 So that’s \u2013 that’s the mess.<\/p>\n

We try to stand in the in between \u2013 which is the nickname for the shelter (The Inn Between). They come in here, they’re broke. I see them wandering around in the parking lot, embarrassed\u2026 they come in here for groceries and we earn their trust and make sure we know what the rest of the story is. And then we do what we can.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How do you handle it all?\u00a0 What’s your typical day like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, if I stressed on everything, I’d be dead!\u00a0 It’s just too much to stress on\u2026 I had a 22-year-old mom with a young child [and] two other kids. The two other kids, she doesn’t know where they are.\u00a0 And she stepped in here with no place to stay\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>[I] gave her food, gave her a voucher for our thrift store to get her a couple changes of clothes, and bus fare to get to Cal City to stay with her aunt. But, she needs to go to the police and file a complaint against her ex-husband.\u00a0 She walked in here crying and very upset, and left here with a smile.<\/p>\n

That took an hour of my time, you know.\u00a0 It’s the discerning of whether people’s needs are real or are they just trying to get what they can get.\u00a0 It’s a very taxing job, sucks the energy right out of your head\u2026 Typically, I spend most of my day here, talking to people who are in trouble.<\/p>\n

Another young man I’ve been working with for two weeks, he came out here with some friends, and there was a place they were supposed to be able to stay, and it didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n

He was 23 years old.\u00a0 He had a backpack and his stuff, and his friends kind of dumped him, so he wanted to go back to North Carolina.\u00a0 So I get a discount [fare ticket] of $176.<\/p>\n

He goes, \u2018wow!\u2019<\/p>\n

I say, \u2018you get $100 and I’ll get you there.\u2019<\/p>\n

He goes, \u2018I can’t do that!\u2019<\/p>\n

I go, \u2018yes you can.\u00a0 You have 15 days to stay at the shelter, and you can earn the $100.\u2019<\/p>\n

So he did.\u00a0 He ended up getting a ride up to Tehachapi \u2013 he had a friend up there \u2013 and spent the night there. The friend gave him the $100, and he got a ride back.\u00a0 He walked in the next morning and gave me the check for $176.\u00a0 I gave him $20 of it back, so he’s going to have some spending money. And he honored my request.\u00a0 He’s back in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he has family.<\/p>\n

But you know I just can’t spend $176 every time someone walks in through the door.\u00a0 I really couldn’t spend $176, but I really wanted to get him home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where does your support come from?\u00a0 Does anyone come back and tell you, ‘thank you?’<\/strong><\/p>\n

It doesn’t say \u2018free food’ anywhere on our building.\u00a0 But the reality is that people who need it find out about it.\u00a0 We could be doing 20,000 people a month, if people out there need it.<\/p>\n

Today [Aug. 7], we had two rounds of grocery handouts at 10 and at 1.\u00a0 A bunch of people helping were clients down the road.\u00a0 They say thank you, but they also say thank you by coming back and being a volunteer.<\/p>\n

People who support us, say at $10, $15, or $20 a month, a lot of them are people who have been clients over the years.\u00a0 Some of them were clients, got out of that, then helped us, then got in trouble again.\u00a0 Then they became clients again.\u00a0 So some have supported us for years, and have lost their home. They’re in trouble again and are so embarrassed.\u00a0 And I go, \u2018wait a minute!\u00a0 If you hadn’t supported us over the years, we wouldn’t be here to take care of you now.\u00a0 It’ll all work out.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Are you a very gifted director, or are you just blessed with people who want to do a good thing in the Antelope Valley and help the cause of Grace Resources?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t think I’m that extraordinary, except for one thing: I’ve learned early on to get out of God’s way and let him do what he does best.\u00a0 I’m not a very patient person, generally.\u00a0 I love people, and I want this to be successful.\u00a0 And I know it doesn’t work because I’m amazing or a good director or a good administrator.\u00a0 It’s because we trusted God with it.\u00a0 He’s honored that.\u00a0 So, as long as I don’t let my head go big or do things on my own steam, that’s when things get headed south.\u00a0 I love my staff, and I love the people coming in for help, and they all know that.\u00a0 I’m not perfect, I don’t always do it right, but they trust me.\u00a0 I think the biggest thing is building trust with the community.<\/p>\n

They know if they give us $10, it’s going to stay right here and be used well\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View video (created last year), explaining the history of how Grace Resources came about.<\/strong>
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