HDC of St. Louis

HDC CHANGES lives

Comments made by our staff, partners and clients:

Community Action Voice Mail

Housing
- “…used her voice mail box to receive important health information and finding housing.”
- “…found an apartment through using community action voice mail.”
- “…using the voice mail to help her find housing and employment.”
- “I was homeless, jobless, had no way to keep in touch with my family and no way to retrieve necessary messages. Community Voice Mail allowed potential landlords to call me and I located housing through that system.”
- “I was able to keep in touch with my son’s father. That contact allowed his dad to baby sit him while I was out job hunting and house hunting.”
- “Removes stigma attached to transitional housing”
Family
- “…One of the requirements of gaining custody of my children is that I must be able to be contacted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by their case worker. Voice mail made that possible.”
General
- “...able to reach client that used to be unreachable”, “....able to communicate with case worker”
- “I really needed that voice mail box and I will tell anyone who asks me that this program works and it’s very important to have it.”
- “I had a cell phone, but it would be disconnected at different times because I didn’t have the money to pay the bill.” – St. Louis CAVM is free.
Abuse
- “She used that number to keep in touch with me and some of her close friends with out her abuser being able to find her based on the phone number. He can’t call information (411) to find her number or trace it back to a building or house.”

Employment
- “…job recruiters and potential landlords aren’t prematurely aware of her circumstances”
- “I was able to let jobs call me for interviews. I was able to get that message without having to call five (5) different houses of relatives and friends to see if someone called for me.”
- “After 6 months of unemployment, a client received CAVM then obtained employment one week later!”
- “Ex-offender still living at workhouse used CAVM to land full-time job in the 40-50,000/yr range”
- “One of our clients was offered a position on a cruise line this week and was able to get the message through her CAVM phone number.”
- “A client found out this morning that she was offered a position with a local housekeeping service, she starts tomorrow.”
- "...Unemployed client received call back message from downtown hotel; followed up and is currently an assistant manager”
- “…came into the shelter, stayed 90 days then moved to transitional housing. Received employment through CAVM and has been working for two years and is now in market rate housing. Communicated with employer until she was able to afford a home phone”
- “Veteran received employment through constant communication while bouncing from house to house”
- “… was able to schedule pre-employment tests with CAVM and was hired full-time”

Immigrant Support through Partnership

At the time xxxx came to HDC, she was leaving in a shelter with her two children. She was in need of a job and counseling. We referred her to counseling and provided her with job referrals. Therefore, she has found herself a job and she is back with her family. Her two children are very happy.

The xxxx family has two boys and one girl. The girl has cerebral palsy. She has been a client with HDC for a long time. The family has received many services from HDC such as help with taxes, W-7, translation of letters, the boys have participated in Springboard and she also has taken ESL classes. Consequently, she has obtained an increase in salary and has been promoted.

The xxxx family has three children. They are refugee from Colombia. They came to HDC to receive many services such as energy assistance, ESL classes, Christmas stories, translations, assistance to obtain unemployment; they were able to find jobs through our referrals. Mrs. xxxx and son work at xxxx Manufacturing and Mr. xxxx with a Cleaning Company. They also received a refrigerator donated through St. Vincent de Paul.

The xxxx family is refugee from Africa. xxxx and his wife have seven children. They came to HDC to obtain energy assistance. At the time, their gas bill was in disconnection notice. We provided them with energy assistance during the winter/spring months. One of there children also participated in the Springboard Program, and now he is back at school. Xxxx is back to work as a taxi driver

A family from Mexican origin came to HDC to get help to process their W-7 (ITIN). They also needed help in correcting the names on their child birth certificate, the wife’s last name was spelt wrongly at the hospital and as a result the child’s birth certificate also. The language barrier, not knowing the U.S. system and how it works, they needed help.

We provided the necessary advice to get a court order to correct the name, later we processed the necessary paper work with Vital Records. Later, they also decided to get married; we helped them to get a marriage license at the City Hall. The sent us a picture with the marriage certificate and a thank you note, and now they work at a restaurant, their daughter goes to school, and they are taking ESL classes.

Judge Theodore McMillian Family Technology Training Center

A woman and her daughter came to learn computer basics. The mother returned to learn more. She bought a digital camera and brought it in, sill in the box and asked to be taught how to use it. Later she explained that she had a business arranging flowers and wanted to know how to create brochures and fliers with the pictures she had been taking. We showed her how to use publisher and she worked on her project steadily for weeks. Later she wanted to learn about web site creation so that she could display her pictures on the Internet and grow her business so we taught her how and she did it.

One parent of a 14yr old that had just completed our Springboard 80hr computer summer camp. She told me about her son’s learning disability and how up until our computer classes, he had never before come home so full of enthusiasm. He had to tell everything they did that day and every day. He would study by choice for a change. She wanted to know what other continuing computer education we had planned. She wanted her son to ride the wave.

Family Support Program

"One woman had 4 children she was trying to support. Due to the untimely death of her boyfriend, who provided financial support, she was forced to apply for TANF. Also at that time, she had learned of the death of 3 other close friends/family members and this contributed to a lot of stress. She says that because of the help she received in the Family Support Program, she was able to sort things out. She has found housing as a part of the Stable Homes for Academic Achievement Program. She studied and received her GED and she plans to apply for Nursing School after the birth of her baby. She called me and said, “Guess what? I got my GED. You’re the second person I called!”

Ms. xxxx is a proud grandmother of 7 grandchildren that are in her custody. When she came to HDC, she needed lots of help with sorting things out. She was new at the “custodial grandparent role” and was looking for support. She immediately joined the Grandparents Support Group and in doing so, she learned about Family Support, the Transportation Program, Stable Homes for Academic Achievement, and the GED program. “Five years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined that this would be the path that I would have to take. Now, I am doing so much better because of the support HDC has given me in so, so many ways.” She has received a vehicle from the Transportation Program. She gets rental assistance from the Stable Homes for Academic Achievement Program. She participated in the 100 Neediest Cases Christmas Program and she is diligently attending GED classes.