Longtime Topeka advocate for the homeless reflects on lifetime achievement honor

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - The Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition honored a familiar face in northeast Kansas.

Long-time homeless advocate and former Topeka Rescue Mission executive director Barry Feaker was awarded the group’s lifetime achievement award. Feaker said he was honored earn the recognition from a group that does such meaningful work.

Feaker ran TRM for 36 years, overseeing years of advocacy, shelter expansions and general outreach. He continues to serve as the organization’s director emeritus.

Now, Feaker is bringing similar agencies together through a new initiative. He founded Compassion Strategies. The group works with communities, organizations, leaders and ministries, to assist in addressing homelessness through community partnerships, conflict resolution and leadership and program development.

“What Compassion Strategies does is we tap into the compassion that people have and help them to systematically look at ways that they can express that compassion through places like the Rescue Mission, Valeo, Stormont Vail,” he said.

Learn about Feaker’s organization at https://www.compassionstrategies.org/.

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