Waterville police Officer Rob Bouley visits with children playing at the water pumps Friday in Head of Falls park in Waterville. Since the kids were all wet, Bouley gave their grandmother some Junior Officer badge stickers for later. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

In my role as a local columnist, I try to steer away from expressing my opinion about people and issues I cover in my role as a news reporter.

But sometimes, I think an exception is warranted when a matter is particularly noteworthy.

Such is the case with Waterville’s ongoing community policing and engagement efforts, as reported at the July 2 City Council meeting.

I was off that week, so did a quick catch-up this past Tuesday and watched a recording of the meeting, which included updates by Waterville police Chief Bill Bonney, Community Outreach Coordinator Todd Stevens, and Community Resource Officer Rob Bouley. Police Maj. Jason Longley, who oversees the advocacy efforts, also was on hand.

It wasn’t just an overview of how Stevens and Bouley are helping homeless people find places to live and connect them with health providers and social services — they do all that and more, often making a phone call immediately to providers and landing solutions. The report was a testament to the truism that it takes a village to raise people up, thus lifting the whole community.

A lot of this work is done at the Waterville Area Soup Kitchen where Bouley, Stevens, city leaders, businesspeople and many volunteers, including kitchen director Carla Caron, spend a lot of time talking to people struggling with poverty, homelessness, substance use disorder and mental health issues. Bouley and Stevens meet people at the city’s cooling and warming center at 46 Front St. as well. Bouley also walks the streets, helping businesses that report problems with loitering, soliciting, littering and speeding.

It would take a book to write about all the successes that have resulted from such hard work and compassion, but a few reported by Bouley, Stevens and Bonney July 2 stand out. They know these people they have helped to get out of bad situations. They have spent hours listening, educating, coaxing, convincing and advocating for them.

Waterville police Officer Rob Bouley, left, and the city’s Community Outreach Coordinator Todd Stevens pose for a portrait Friday in a gazebo at Head of Falls park in Waterville. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Stevens, a social worker whom Bonney hired last year to go into the community to help people struggling as a way to reduce their interactions with police, said he has responded to 345 calls to the police dispatch center since Jan. 1. Those calls, Stevens said, don’t include calls from others, such as school and the public library officials, reporting some in need. Although local advocates have not solved the homeless crisis, they are making progress — and making a difference, according to Stevens.

“Rob and I were walking down the RiverWalk yesterday,” Stevens recalled. “A young gentleman we were both familiar with from working with at the soup kitchen came up to us and said, ‘I’m going to be your biggest success.’ He said, ‘I got the job.’ He’s making $20 an hour, he’s super excited. He says, ‘I’m working with a case manager you got me set me up with and I got my housing voucher and I went and looked at three apartments today. I’m going to be driving a Jaguar in a three-piece suit and it’s because of  you guys believing in me.’ ”

Stevens and Bouley work with the fire department’s paramedicine team that aids people who have no medical resources, as well as with youths at the Alfond Youth & Community Center, South End Teen Center and students in public schools.

They met with a teenager who hadn’t been to school in 2 1/2 months and school officials had nearly exhausted their efforts trying to get her to attend, Stevens said.

He and Bouley came up with a plan that worked for both the girl and her mother. She returned to school. Stevens drove her there. The plan worked for the teen.

“She called Rob and I two weeks ago, all excited,” Stevens recalled. “She thought she was done with school, was going to do adult ed, and she said, ‘Nope, no, I’m not going to do that and I want you to know, I’m going to Mid-Maine Technical and I’m enrolled to do criminal justice.’ ”

Bouley, who has been a Waterville police officer many years, was named the community resource officer in January. He also heads up the department’s Operation HOPE program which helps place people addicted to substances into treatment centers. That program, which operates on donations and grants, has made 514 such placements since 2017, 38 of them since January this year.

I stay in touch via social media with a young woman who was helped by that program in its first year and she continues to do well, and thrive. She is a totally different person than she was when she started, sick, addicted and scared.

Waterville police Officer Rob Bouley, left, and the city’s Community Outreach Coordinator Todd Stevens walk along the RiverWalk Friday at Head of Falls park in Waterville. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Mayor Mike Morris thanked Stevens and Bouley for their good work, saying the number of positive stories coming out of their efforts is phenomenal.

His comment prompted Councilor Flavia DeBrito, D-Ward 2, to relay a story of her own. DeBrito spends a lot of time helping people at the soup kitchen; she also helps homeless people file their taxes. DeBrito said a client approached her recently and told her she hadn’t had a doctor in years, but one phone call from Stevens or Bouley changed all that.

“She got a doctor on the phone, she got her blood pressure checked, and she was so happy,” DeBrito said. “I sat there and I talked to her for a little bit, but she was really happy to just have a doctor, so I really thank you for all the work that you guys have been doing on the ground. It really is showing.”

Councilor Thomas Klepach, D-Ward 3, echoed DeBrito’s comments, saying Stevens, Bouley and others are doing amazing and important work.

“I’m just so proud to live in a town that values this model of community engagement,” Klepach said. “I feel so proud of the work you’re doing. I know it’s frustrating, I know it’s hard work, I know it requires a ton of patience and compassion, and just learning a new way of making a society a functional society. I’m so very thankful.”

I couldn’t have said it better. After having spent years covering these issues in Waterville, I must echo Klepach’s sentiment.

And I urge anyone needing a spiritual lift to watch that council video. It won’t disappoint.

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 35 years. Her columns appear here Saturdays. She is the author of the book, “Comfort is an Old Barn,” a collection of her curated columns, published in 2023 by Islandport Press. She may be reached at acalder@centralmaine.com. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com