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LANCE GAITHER

lance.gaither@bluegrassnewsmedia.com

Stachelle Bussey, founder of the Hope Buss, was the keynote speaker Monday for Poverty and Homelessness Week at Centre College. The Hope Buss is a non-profit organization that seeks to bring hope and healing to those experiencing poverty and homelessness. The program started as a group of volunteers providing free rides to grocery stores and has expanded to include The Hope Village in Louisville and a modified school bus that has been converted into a mobile community center.

Bussey created The Hope Buss as a means to confront  and overcome poverty.

“We wanted to do something different, so we engage people,” Bussey said. “I always hoped my work would make an impact but this has just boomeranged out. Every day I’m amazed I get to go out in Louisville and Kentucky to inspire the next generation of leaders.”

She believes that community engagement and communication is key to fighting poverty.

“It begins with conversations and collective power,” she said. “(For) someone from rural Kentucky and the West End of Louisville, issues might be different but the technique is the same. You have to start at involving. Who do you want to help? That is who you want to engage. It doesn’t start with the thousands, it starts with the one.”