GREEN BAY (WLUK) -- A secure storage space for homeless individuals to keep their important belongings has been established inside a downtown Green Bay resource center.

The program is called Storing Dignity. It was created when staff at St. John's Ministries -- a homeless shelter in Green Bay -- learned that many people experiencing homelessness had trouble storing their important documents, belongings and family treasures when all they had was a backpack or a suitcase.

Others trusted people to keep their important items safe, only to have them taken -- or hid their items in bags in bushes or other places, only to have them get lost or stolen.

"We take for granted a lot of different things in our lives, whether it be a place to lay our head at night, but also an area to store our personal items," said Micah Parlow. "There's a lot of impetus on the legal items, such as birth certificates and social security numbers. But also there's those personal and sentimental items, like a family photo or pictures of your kids, things like that. Things that you just don't want to part from."

Parlow is a member of the2024 Leadership Green Bay class Team 5. During the program's Human Services Day, they met Paul VanHandel -- a street outreach worker from NEWCAP -- who connects with unsheltered individuals and helps them find resources. VanHandel told Team 5 about the struggles that homeless individuals face to securely store their belongings.

With the help of several local partners and sponsors, Team 5 establishedStoring Dignity. The program allows unsheltered individuals to check their important belongings in and out of the secure storage space for a limited time period.

The facility is located in the lower level of the Micah Center, a daytime resource center in Green Bayfor adults experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday to celebrate its grand opening.

"It seems like a simple project of putting some shelves in some room, but it actually ends up being more complicated, just because you have the logistics of it all, and then how are we going to store different items? And then thinking, how are we going to keep those items safe?" Parlow said.

He believes Storing Dignity will make a big difference for people in need in the Green Bay community.

"Homelessness is on the rise. It's a tough world that we live in," Parlow said.