LYNN — For Salvation Army Capt. Enmanuel Villegas, being posted as pastor and commanding officer of the organization’s center in Lynn was a homecoming of sorts.

Villegas, who was born in the Dominican Republic, grew up in Lawrence since the age of 12.

“The Salvation Army was kind of the first place I came to,” he said. “I didn’t know what the Salvation Army was about in terms of its social-service aspect. We just knew it as a church, where I was involved in a lot of the character-building programming, leadership training.”

He said his mother and stepfather were involved in the church aspect of the organization and that he basically grew up in the Salvation Army.

“I got to work at their overnight summer camp, the aspect of developing on a leadership level and being able to be of service to the kids, that’s what drew me to continue serving in any capacity possible,” he said.

Things changed for him and his family when he was 17 years old.

“My family suffered flooding of our home,” Villegas said. “That’s when I found out the other aspect of the Salvation Army. We needed assistance, and we were able to receive services. From there, I was still involved.”

He graduated from high school and went on to earn his associate degree in computer engineering.

“As I was going to complete my bachelor’s, I felt the calling of the Lord,” he said.

Villegas decided to attend the Salvation Army College for Officer Training in Suffern, N.Y., where he earned another associate degree and moved into the ministry.

“I’ve been in the Salvation Army ever since,” he said.

In 2001, his wife, Stephanie Villegas, got accepted into the same training program that he had completed.

“Being married, I went along with her,” he said.

He served as a social ministry officer, working with the social-services arm of the Salvation Army for the Eastern Territory of the United States, which runs from Maine to northern Kentucky and includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“From there, I was transferred to the training college facility as the mission and ministry officer,” Enmanuel Villegas said. “I worked to provide training to the first-year cadets to do their hands-on ministry work.”

In July, Enmanuel and Stephanie Villegas were both assigned to Lynn. Enmanuel Villegas said that his role is twofold.

“My main role is to balance the church aspect of the Salvation Army with all the programming geared toward character building, fellowship and religious perspective with our beliefs, and (the role of) executive director of the nonprofit aspect of the social services we provide to the community,” he said.

One of his first tasks was to conduct an assessment to identify the community’s needs.

“Food security is the top need right now,” Enmanuel Villegas said. “We’re trying to combat that with the resources that we have, given to us by the Greater Boston Food Bank and local stores who contribute to us.”

Coupled with food security is a need for utility and rental assistance.

“Our hope is… in the years to come, to be able to develop a program where we would be able to have the funds to help people,” he said.

Enmanuel Villegas hopes to reach out more to the city’s Spanish-speaking community as well.

“One of the things I noticed right away was that a lot of our clients don’t speak English,” he said. “There is a need to provide a free ESL class that will be able to transition into providing job training, where people can come off our system and become self-sustainable.”

Overall, the couple hopes to be a positive force in the community.

“We certainly hope to make an impact in our community through our programs here,” he said. “We hope to grow our programs and institute new ones.”