From 1 p.m. Thursday to 1 p.m. Friday, a park bench in downtown Colorado Springs is taking on the persona of a talk show stage, with the topic of the 24-hour day being homelessness.

“I see a community that wants to be part of the solution and not just complain from the balcony,” Travis Williams, president and CEO of Springs Rescue Mission, the city’s largest homeless shelter, says to his first guest of “Conversations on a Bench.”

It’s Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade.

When we think about homeless people, Mobolade says, nothing speaks louder than humanizing the stories of the people who are struggling to get by and survive.

Springs Rescue Mission, which provided emergency shelter for 439 people on Wednesday, became a “safe haven” for MelindaJoy Mingo, when she found herself homeless.

“I needed a place to stay, I needed a place to eat,” she said in a video shown during a break from the bench talk.

And as she got rehoused and back on her feet, Mingo became an ordained minister and volunteer chaplain for four years at the Christian-based rescue mission.

“I saw people who knew me when I was living on the streets, and I got to encourage them,” she said.

She’s now board member, founder and president of the ministry, Significant Life Change Inc.

“That’s the story of Jesus’ redemption,” she said.

Mobolade offers up a four-letter word that he thinks helps in all situations: hope.

“I feel we need hope more than ever,” the mayor said. “People seem angry — COVID did something to us, and we need to get back to that human-first approach of connectedness.”

That’s when people who are homeless or otherwise struggling begin to flourish, Mobolade said, as they get pointed in the right direction and find people who can be their guide back to a stable, self-sustaining life.

The production — which is being livestreamed on YouTube and can be accessed at www.springsrescue.com or at https://www.youtube.com/live/MMv5GZJchnc — focuses on community conversations about the multifaceted nature of homelessness, a subject that tops the list of complaints that elected city officials field, said Colorado Springs City Councilmember David Leinweber, another bench guest. Crime and potholes round out the top three concerns.

When people hear the word “homeless,” many people think of the guy they saw yelling on a street corner to no one and everyone, or the man in the wheelchair who’s pacing up and down the sidewalk, Leinweber said.

But it’s much more than that, he said.

Williams agreed, saying homelessness impacts every aspect of the community, from health care and emergency services to housing and human services to the general public.

“But most of all it impacts the individuals that are experiencing homelessness, poverty and addiction,” Williams said. “One of our goals of today is for folks to better understand the complexities and why it’s a challenging topic in every community.”

The term encompasses many different types of people, including children, teens, seniors and military veterans, some of whom are addicted to substances or have other mental health problems, he said. And each population has different needs.

Hosting 25 partner agencies on its campus that spans six blocks south of downtown Colorado Springs, from physical and mental health care agencies to the El Paso County Department of Human Services, is what sets the rescue mission apart from other shelters and has helped it become a national model, Williams said.

The event also has a goal of raising $24,000 in the 24 hours to help with its general operating expenses for the shelter and daily meal service for anywhere from 400 to 600 in the summer to 800 to 1,300 meals a day in the winter, along with addiction-recovery programs, on-site job training, and transitional and permanent housing.

An increase in demand is driving the rescue mission to increase the capacity of its overnight shelter from 450 or more potentially to 610 people.

Most of the organization’s funding comes from private donations, Williams said. The rescue mission reduced its annual budget for this fiscal year to balance the books due to decreasing revenues from various sources.

A sunrise devotional service will be held on the YouTube channel offering the bench conversations at 5 a.m. Friday.