At Salt & Light Community Center, Darlene Conant is creating a space where faith, friendship, and healing come together. They are building community health and healing through the love of Jesus and quality time together.

Photos by Savannah Tracy and Salt & Light. Q&A as told to CEI by Salt and Light Community Center Owner, Darlene Conant, in her own words.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Darlene Conant. I am the founder and director of Salt and Light Community Center here in Auburn, Maine.

What is Salt and Light Community Center?

We are founded on health pillars of spiritual, emotional, physical, and financial help. We know that you kind of need all those pieces to come together to be a healthy being. So, we got to work in our local park. And because we really didn’t have a base, we said, “We’ll start with kids.” We did kids activities in the park like story hours, kickball, and adventure camps. From that, we learned that there were a lot of grandparents raising grandchildren. So, then we started a grandparent support group, and it wasn’t long before a sweet church offered to us to use their basement as a home base for the last 4 years. And just this year, we were able to finally purchase a building of our own, and we’re very, very happy and blessed to be in.

What are the visions for this building now that you finally have your own space?

We have always wanted to serve the community as a whole. But with shared and limited space, we were not able to do that. In this building we will be able to finally serve the whole community. We’ve primarily done kids and a parenting group, and our goal would be to be open on a more regular basis to support. We also have a lot of elderly in the community, so maybe community lunches for the elderly, where they can come and just have connection and community. In this building we also have rooms for all our kids — and we do a lot of work, mentorship with our kids — and we have rooms to kind of support things that they might be interested in such as agriculture, art, music, sewing, and fitness rooms that all support our health pillars and the opportunity to find your identity and be able to find something that you can do, as opposed to just kind of wandering lost. We also serve primarily trauma-based groups in the neighborhood we’re in here in Auburn. Helping people heal and work and see what a passion that they might have, and just have community here, would be some of our goals.

What is your mission?

Our overall mission is to share that we believe that healing comes ultimately through Jesus. We want to share that with our community that if you’re hurting, there is a way to healing, and that’s through Jesus. And that could show up in lots of ways. But ultimately, when we try to do things on our own, we’re not very successful. And inviting Jesus in to be part of that journey, and helping, and to understand who we are, is what we want for our community.

What events do you hold?

Our biggest events are community days, and in these days, we partner with a lot of the area churches and organizations to just give a free day of fun to our community. We usually hold them in Chestnut Park, and we’ll being in music, have popcorn and cornhole, and it’s just a time of community being together, and those have been very well received. Some smaller things we do are basketball and soccer clinics for kids, and we do adventure camps in the parks still. We are now in the building, but we still need to be able to reach people where they are, which means staying active in the park and continuing to partner with a lot of churches.

What is something you’re most proud of?

We’re proud of how our team works so well together, how they invest in community, how they love on people, and how they really care for each other. I feel super blessed and proud of that. If there’s anything that our message is, our hearts really shine, and we’re able to serve people, and I’m really, really super proud of that.

How can people join Salt and Light? How can people become mentors?

Our website certainly has an opportunity to fill out if you want to volunteer, or you can call me at 207-376-7245, and I’d love to show people around. As far as people participating, we often do sign-up online as well. But most of our kids programming is friends bringing friends, and they just walk through the door. And the heart of a community center, that probably will still be a lot of what we do, is to just come on in. In the heart of the community center, I would love for people to have come through the door and to have a place to have community and friends.

What does being a small business owner mean to you?

It means that I’m finally working into my purpose. For years, I worked in a customer service job, and sitting at my desk which is not what I love to do. Serving people, loving on people, and helping people to change, is really where my passion is. It needs a lot of work, needs a lot of education. When it’s the heart of what you want to do, it suddenly isn’t work. I get to do this, I get to go love on people.

What are some challenges you’ve faced?

I don’t like raising money. That’s probably your answer for most nonprofits. Other challenges are organization; it’s just not my best suit. But I have been blessed with people that can fill those gaps.

How are you handling that challenge?

I really think doing the work and letting people see the work is the biggest way to say, hey, join us in making a difference for people. We do have admin who finds, which I’m very grateful for. But it really is the opportunity to say, you can help make a difference. And that’s where the heart of it is. And it does make the job a little easier.

What advice would you give to someone thinking of starting a similar organization?

Get a good team. Be ready to invest the time. Be ready to work hard. If you’re doing what you love, then the work doesn’t feel so hard.

Is there something you wish you knew at the beginning?

I think life is a journey, and you need all the pieces to process and learn. And I don’t know if there’s something that would have made something terribly different.

What do you want people to know about Salt and Light?

What we say to every child or even their adults when they come through their door is that I love you, and God loves you, and you’re important to us, and you’re important to Him. And that really came from one of our other youth group leaders starting to say that to our teens, and I adopted it because they responded so well to it. You are important. You are loved. And we will love you through the tough stuff, because there’s no one exempt from the tough stuff, and we know that you have lived through some hard stuff. But we’re going to walk that journey with you, and we’ll stick with you through the big behaviors and be here to love you.

How did you hear about CEI? What is your relationship with them?

I heard about them from the real estate agent that was selling this building. I was a little resistant to reaching out because I was pretty sure I just wanted to raise all the money. But eventually we did reach out. What I love about them is they are super supportive. They have all kinds of services, and they really work on your behalf. There was an employee who helped us through the whole planning process of cash flow, met with us several times, and just did a super job in getting us on the right track. Molly, our loan processor, was a great communicator. Their responsiveness, the services that they offer, are just really great. And they also continue afterwards. So even after you close the loan, they continue to say, “OK, Eric is still available for you if you need to talk.” Their commitment, the services that they offer, and then even after the servicing of the loan is the aftercare.

Would you recommend their services to other businesses?

Absolutely. They’re a great team. I really felt blessed by being able to work with them.

What is your favorite part about Salt and Light Community Center?

I love to play with kids. I like to set aside the business part and just hang out with kids. Our kids come in here all the time, and they’ll work alongside of me —putting down floors or moving furniture or making posters for the walls — and being able to teach them and work with them is amazing.