Tampa - Story by Brent Donaldson
More than ten years ago retired Deputy Jay Noble joined the ranks of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. It was during his tenure where he began his career like most, as a beat cop on the streets of Tampa responding often to the same complaints about the same people with the same problems.
"It's a never ending cycle of distress that rarely seeks a resolution," says Noble.
More recently, Noble made a decisive move in the direction of personal fulfillment to answer his life's calling as he describes it. He retired from his decade of law enforcement to launch Noble Ministries with his ministry partner and wife "Ali" Noble.
Like Jay Noble his wife Ali comes from a regimented corporate-styled infrastructure where she gave up the trappings of a secure salary along with the allure of benefits. It was their shared passion and a mutual desire to fulfill a common mission that made her move from the corporate world easy. "Helping those in our community solve their problems so they may become self-reliant," Ali said, was a primary focus of their mission.
While Jay Noble worked on the streets of north west Hillsborough County he was moved by the works of a fellow co-worker. It was the street engagement of Help Cops Help Us founder Steven Donaldson interacting with the homeless in their camps and on their own turf he thought was not only compelling but complimentary to his own mission.
And soon enough while forming his own ministries' street engagement model, he reached out to Donaldson with an offer of mutual collaboration and assistance. "It's almost a natural order of events," Donaldson says. "Those that share a common goal tend to gravitate and work together for a greater benefit and result."
With combining the works of both secular and faith-based brands street engagement law enforcement specialists will be augmented by Noble Ministries' behind-the-scenes supportive services. The ministry has a particular interest with the Help Cops Help Us rehousing model where deed-holders donate the use of their vacant and sometimes ramshackled single-family cottage-sized homes. In exchange for living in the home selected homeless candidates work on renovations with the aid of private-sector donations.
"It's about building relationships with those we are trying to help," says Ali Noble. "We want to work one-on-one with them to help them solve their own problems."
"We're teaching people how to fish," Donaldson added. "Personally, I don't give anything away without getting something in return and that usually amounts to helping people retool their problem-solving skills to become more self-sufficient -- that's what works."
Noble Ministries as an independent partner has an established 501(c)(3) non-profit designation and like many Help Cops Help Us partners they fulfill their mission through outreach with personal donations by the many that share their vision.
"Something as simple as a bus pass or work boots goes a long way," says Ali Noble. We work hand-in-glove with employment assistance and sometimes that means transportation to a job interview. She added, "Once we have past this hurdle often they need something like work accessories too and these donations are dedicated to our personal investments in people not corporate infrastructure."
It was explained as a profound example of mutually complimenting cooperatives between, public, private, and faith-based partners to solve a communities' most lingering problems associated with personal distress and homelessness.
This was what Jay Noble had in mind on a certain faithful day when he turned in his formal resignation from law enforcement duty to his commanding officer. Jay explained, "I didn't expect everyone to understand my motivation leaving a job like the Sheriff's Office, but sometimes you have to accept the yearning that comes from free will and take the final leap of faith."
"I'm glad I did it," Jay said gleefully!
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