LYNCHBURG, Va. – Thomas Seabolt knows what it’s like to have nothing.
“I was incarcerated,”Seabolt said. “I had nowhere to go. No place to live, no nothing.”
Seabolt found the Lighthouse Community Center, that offered him programs to help him get back on his feet.
“The Lighthouse accepted me into their program when no one else wanted me,” he said.
The Lighthouse, alongside Focus Point Mental Health held a grand opening for their new residential crisis stabilization unit Friday.
Founder and CEO of The Lighthouse Finny Mathew says they meet people in their place of mental health crisis.
“From there to bring it to a stage that we could see them calm down, and then we’ll be able to address further as to what they are really going through,” Mathew said.
President and CEO of Focus Point Angela Williams says they are trying to keep people out of the hospital.
“They are in need of behavioral health services that would otherwise cause them to be hospitalized for suicidal/homicidal ideation, then they would be a candidate for coming into services,” Williams said.
The center will also help the Lynchburg Police Department, who are often required to sit at the hospital with people in crisis for hours at a time.
Lt. Greg Coleman says there are many days where many officers are at the hospital, instead of on patrol.
“We can present the person there, and then go back to the street to answer 911 calls,” Coleman said.
Seabolt helped renovate the center, and says he’s giving back to people like himself.
“If we don’t, you know, help each other as a community, guess what? The community implodes,” he said.