For years, The Well has been helping residents of Knoxville and the surrounding area out of its Pella headquarters; now, they will be opening a new branch in Knoxville itself, in order to provide assistance more directly.

The Well is a faith-based organization which provides assistance to those in need; it will be opening up operations at the Event Center at 404 W. Pleasant Street, beginning in 2019. It will have a resource center for people needing various forms of assistance, and a thrift store for them to buy from.

Jayson Henry is Executive Director for The Well; he tells KNIA/KRLS News there are many people in Knoxville who need their help, and many who are willing to help…and they’ve wanted The Well to come there for a long time.

“Really, since The Well started we’ve been working with resources in Knoxville; there’s lots of resources down there we will refer people to,” Henry says. “We see a ton of folks from Knoxville that come up to see us; so it’s really been a natural partnership there. And I would say really about three years ago we started at least having some discussion around would it make sense to partner with resources down there in such a way that we actually put our ministry services down there.”

Henry says the push to bring The Well to town comes from many church and civic leaders in Knoxville; and he says the town in general has a strong willingness to help out those in need — something he and the other volunteers want to be a part of.