Latest News

On a blistering hot July day, Dr. Shannon Emry leads a group of physicians, health workers and volunteers away from the Union Gospel Mission in downtown Sioux Falls.

Their destination is the Bishop Dudley House. There, Midwest Street Medicine, a nonprofit that provides medical care to people on the streets, sets up a tent in the parking lot.

Part of their team takes a wagon filled with supplies and begins checking on a group of people sleeping in the grass. They offer cheese sticks and bottled water. Another team sets up tables under the tent and waits.

One of the first people to approach is Rick, who has been living in a nearby shelter. He sits in a folding chair across from Dr. Don Ellis.  

“My body is shot from cirrhosis, and it’s hard for me to walk, and it’s hard for me to think,” Rick tells him. Ellis checks Rick’s heart and lungs and takes his blood pressure. He asks where he’s from.

Rick was a bricklayer in Iowa but was airlifted to Sioux Falls for medical reasons. When he got out of the hospital, he didn’t know where to go. He says his family knows where he is, and he’d like to get back to them.

Rick’s easy to talk to – he’s funny and friendly – and Ellis listens closely.

They make a few jokes, and Rick sheds a few tears. His hand hurts, and Ellis examines it. He takes notes on a clipboard and then consults with Emry. They decide Rick needs a brace for his broken hand, and she calls around to find one. Another volunteer gets it while Rick waits.

“Everybody here has been so helpful,” Rick says. “This doctor came to me, and I didn’t have to make an appointment. And he spoke to me in a way that wasn’t confusing. They’re willing to help, and I appreciate that.”

Ellis fits him with the brace and offers him a bus pass, if he’s ready to go back home to his family. Volunteers with Midwest Street Medicine can manage the medical needs of their patients, but when they need to access community services or understand where someone is on their journey to self-sufficiency, they work with the Network of Care.

Connecting people

The Network of Care is, at its core, a shared software system that can show what services people have connected with – and where there might be gaps, said Shauna Batcheller, program director at the Helpline Center, which runs the network.

“Going from homelessness to stable housing can be a 40-step process, and you have to solve multiple problems at the same time – find a job, childcare, health or dental needs,” Batcheller said. “The Helpline Network of Care can help tell that story and what people experience.”

The network launched in 2016 and has received funding from the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation over the years, most recently in 2025 for continued study and data gathering.

“It’s important to get a better understanding of how all our nonprofits can work together in Sioux Falls,” said Patrick Gale, vice president of community investment at the Community Foundation. “The Network of Care continues to help tell those success stories and also find opportunities to collaborate. We see this as a good investment to continue to build this network.”

Since its inception, studies out of Augustana University have shown how collecting data on who uses social services and how they use them can help drive change, effectiveness and efficiency for agencies and their clients.

“Our partners can tailor their services to address those needs when they know what they are from a data position,” Batcheller said, noting the data will be collected and analyzed annually.

The network also is building a community dashboard to help support collaborative efforts among the 21 agencies who have signed up to be part of it.

“We’re very proud to elevate the work of all the organizations in this community who are working so hard to help people, and they are doing it with limited resources,” Batcheller said. “I get to see how all the connections are made, and how much work it is to help someone get back on their feet after they’ve experienced hardship.”

Sioux Falls Housing is a partner in the network, and they have set aside housing vouchers available to people referred through the Network of Care. Other groups include Furniture Mission or Midwest Street Medicine. Batcheller said it all drives efficiency.

Rich Merkouris realized a need to connect organizations as he became more familiar with poverty working on the Sioux Falls homeless task force.

“I realized that at any point, anybody that’s being helped is being helped by at least four different organizations,” Merkouris said. “I began to realize the need for how these organizations are communicating, not only for the benefit of the person, but the benefit of the donors and the community overall.”

He points to an example of a mom receiving subsidized childcare who also might be looking for housing or a bus pass or more food.

“All of those things go hand-in-hand, and not one entity does all of those things,” he said. “The Network of Care allows a person to bring all their information one time, and then all the entities can see it. Someone can get a whole picture of what’s really going on in a person’s life.”

For Midwest Street Medicine, their community outreach is tracked in the network. “We have a street outreach tracker we built for them, so they can geographically ping where they are meeting people for their street outreach efforts,” Batcheller said.

Emry said they have a separate electronic medical record for clients, but the network database helps with the social needs of the patient, like helping Rick get a bus pass, or showing where someone is living or was most recently served.

“It’s super helpful for organizations to know where they can come to provide services for the individual,” Emry said, noting it helps reduce duplication of things like legal documents or giving more background on someone’s needs.

She sees referrals come her way, too. “If a community health worker is working with someone on housing, but they see there is a medical need, they can refer them to us, and there’s a paper trail. It’s a private system where we can communicate,” Emry said.

Additional partners, streamlined data

The challenge is bringing more partners online to expand the ecosystem and ensuring the cost-effectiveness of customizing the experience. Nonprofits pay a yearly fee to be members of the network.

Mayor Paul Ten Haken said the network data allows organizations to look at problems from a centralized standpoint.  

“There’s a phrase that I sometimes use with my team, and it’s ‘In God we trust, everybody else bring data.’  With the Network of Care, we now have multiple agencies that are all using the same system to enter data,” he said. “It allows us to serve people in a way we couldn't do before.”

Merkouris said the data helps drive decision-making.

“We hear testimony about childcare or food challenges, and sometimes the emotion of that can move you. This is an opportunity for us to look at data to make sure that there's objective information backing it up. So, I think it can help with resource allocation. The other thing it could help us with big time is collaboration, reducing duplication.”

Emry and Merkouris encourage other agencies to use the program.

“We’re all in the business of improving the human condition in one way or another, and we can't do it alone,” Merkouris said. “We have to recognize the complexity of the people we're serving. When we recognize that complexity, we realize that we’ve got to have a different system that meets those needs.”

Take for example, someone looking for housing assistance or for programs to help with rent, utilities, or transportation. The Network of Care can help get people to the right resources.

“It can be a lot of work to be poor, and that level of work and complexity can drive people into further discouragement and depression, which freezes them from taking steps forward,” Merkouris said. The network can provide a path forward.

Kenneth Locke experienced that firsthand. Locke, 48, grew up in Aberdeen. He was born with a nonaggressive nerve and muscle disorder, but he worked to stay physically strong. He owned a car window-tinting business. Then he was in a car accident, which compressed his spine and caused further damage.

“It was pinching nerves, and I couldn’t stand up anymore. I was collapsing, and I couldn’t work anymore, and that’s when I found myself using,” said Locke, who turned to methamphetamine and alcohol. “I loved working on cars and had been working on them since I was 13 years old. It was like my life was over.”

He was embarrassed by his condition and overwhelmed by grief after he lost one wife to breast cancer and another to congestive heart failure. He began to isolate himself and turn to drugs and alcohol.

“Pride got in the way – I didn’t want anyone to see me in a wheelchair. I found myself with a lot of depression and felt lost. Drugs just make you not care,” he said.

Locke was convicted and served time in the state penitentiary. When he was released, he chose to stay in Sioux Falls – looking to make a fresh start, away from old influences.

“I talked to a case manager in Sioux Falls and told her my story and that I want to change my life. I knew there were more opportunities here.”

He stayed at the St. Francis House until he received a housing voucher from Sioux Falls Housing through the Network of Care and moved into a ground-floor apartment in northeastern Sioux Falls.

Locke is proud of where he lives – a two-bedroom apartment with neighbors who look out for each other. He’s been doing vocational rehab and is training to be a peer support specialist.

“Everything fell together so quickly,” Locke said. “The health care, the housing, the transportation. It’s really accessible. Sioux Falls was a fresh start and a new chapter."

He pauses for a moment. "I just want to thank every single one of the organizations that helped me. I mean, I’m just so grateful.”