Reflecting on 2022
January 6, 2023 | By: Doug Cowan, CSL President & CEO
CSL Board Chair, Jeff Benson (left) and Board Vice Chair, Kat Hnatyshyn (right) presented Doug and Helen Hatridge with the 2022 Legacy Award at CSL's Luminous Gala.
For 13 years, I have written scores of articles and letters about the growth and expansion of CSL’s programs and services. You might ask yourself, is CSL only about growing, expanding, and doing more? As we move in CSL’s 107th year in 2023, here’s how I would answer that question:
I am not content with the status quo, and I am not content with the number of impoverished families in our community. Poverty is one of the main causes of unrealized human potential, and it has been that case throughout human history. I refuse to accept that we should be comfortable with any person not living out their God-given talents and abilities.
Poverty is a very complex social issue, and CSL recognizes that families need mentors to coach them through meaningful change processes in their lives and they need that coaching for multiple years, they need a robust amount of supports along the way, and they need economic tools to vault them toward the American middle class.
So, as CSL grows and expands, we are working to bring more coaching opportunities for families, adding more supports that catalyze change processes, and we are bringing on tools that help put families on an upward economic trajectory. With that in mind, here are some ways we moved closer to our objectives in 2022:
CSL’s Board of Directors endorsed and advocated for the development of the Eastgate Commerce Center on Little Blue Parkway in eastern Independence. We did this to help bring 5,000 jobs to Eastern Jackson County in the next decade. So many of our neighbor families are struggling in low-wage jobs, many in the retail/service sector, and need opportunities to work for large employers that offer good jobs with family-sustaining wages, and have a robust array of benefits and career advancement opportunities. In 2023, look for more news about CSL providing career connection opportunities within the Eastgate Commerce Center.
2022 Phlebotomy graduates at UCM. These individuals passed rigorous training, participated in CSL’s Career Readiness training, Financial Coaching, Digital Literacy, and Job Coaching.
We enrolled 200 adults in tuition-paid (through philanthropy) career trainings in healthcare, skilled trades, and transportation/logistics. We have graduated more than 80% of those 200 enrollees (we’re still working to push others across the finish line) and many have doubled their household earnings as a result. We focus on trainings that offer an industry-recognized credential, are in high-demand career sectors, and have stackable certificate opportunities (career advancement). We wrapped our participants in supports for basic needs, digital access, mental wellness, and financial wellbeing to ensure that their career transitions will be successful. In 2023, thanks to a three-year grant from T-Mobile, we will launch a new pathway in Information Technology.
Evie St. John graduated from the FSS program in November 2022 and is now enjoying homeownership!
Our wealth- and asset-development programming hit a significant milestone in 2022, and launched a new pilot program. For five years, we have been operating the Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Program at Hawthorne Place Apartments in Independence (a HUD-supported community). FSS enrollees, by way of improving their job situation, escrow money into a savings account. The cumulative savings hit more than $750,000 at the end of 2022. Many of the enrollees have a stated goal of homeownership, and 23 graduates used their savings account as a down payment for their first home. Not only is going from a HUD-subsidized housing to homeownership an incredible accomplishment, when that person moves out, it frees up a unit of affordable housing that is desperately needed by a family that is overburdened by soaring rental rates. We have built on this success by securing $875,000 in grant funding to pilot asset development in Northwest Independence, and we look forward to sharing progress updates in 2023.
To help families remain stable and start to move ahead, we must stop the glut of needless evictions that occur in Jackson County. According to the Eviction Lab, 27.7 evictions are filed every day in Jackson County. This equates to more than 7,000 eviction filings, and more than 7,000 households that are potentially on the move and with a judgement on their record for the next seven years. For many of these filings, just a month or two of rental assistance can prevent a life-altering eviction. In 2022, CSL continued to administer federal Emergency Rental Assistance dollars, and invested more than $10 million to stop eviction and/or utility shut-off. We launched an initiative with the 16th Circuit Court to have intervention staff in the courthouses to help mediate tenant-landlord cases. Most landlords want to avoid eviction, as they rarely can collect outstanding rent payments, so this is a win for renters, and win for landlords, and a win for our broader community as this allows for more stable households, schools, and communities.
CSL raised our voice on behalf of children in our community, and asked Jackson Countians to renew the Children’s Services Fund at the November election. With more than 157,000 yes votes, 75% of Jackson County voters said this tax renewal was important to our community’s wellbeing. This will provide more than $30 million annually to help support children’s mental health and wellbeing. Investments that we make in children now will have great dividends in the future.
To truly be a connected community, we must work hard to uplift the voices and stories of all community members. We celebrated stories, encapsulated in our Cultural Connections programming, within our community from African Americans, women, LGBTQ+, Hispanics, and Asian American/Pacific Islanders. Why is this important? CSL is a part of (and helps lead work) in communities of diverse backgrounds. We can not help communities move forward if we do not help bring all people to the proverbial table. For people to feel invested in their community, they must feel valued, appreciated, and heard. CSL uses our reach and voice to help uplift community stories.
CSL maintained and supported a network of 13 locations that provide a wide array of resources and support. Most importantly, beyond all the food, clothing, shelter, and other basic needs we have provided for a century, we are simply there. We are there for the person who knows they are struggling but has no where else to turn, or is not sure how to access assistance. We take very seriously that responsibility to be there when people need us, and your support allows to maintain neighborhood-based social services that are accessible and helpful to families. In many of our communities, we are the only social services provider with a physical location, and beyond basic needs, we are often direct referral providers to government programs, mental and physical health provision, and other support opportunities. Your giving allows us to be there for your community.
To help address the rising amount of homelessness in our area, we have aggressively pursued more federal, state, and local funding, along with philanthropy dollars. In 2023, we will have nearly 80 leases on apartment units that house formerly-homeless individuals and families. Each of those households receives intense case management to help move them towards permanent housing, while they are wrapped in a variety of basic needs, financial, and employment supports.
We diversified our employment work in 2017 by becoming a State of Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation provider, and, in 2022, we helped our 500th community member with a disability achieve an employment milestone. For many individuals, this is the first time they have worked outside of their home, and there are many barriers that we help them navigate, including transportation, training, clothing, soft skills, and much more. In 2023, we will expand our work to be an authorized Traumatic Brain Injury provider, and we will also offer a summer work experience for young people with disabling conditions.
Your gifts directly helped change lives in our community, and helps CSL be a constant safety net provider. As I said at the beginning, we will continue to pursue more opportunities to strengthen our community in 2023 and beyond. While we are making great strides, I am not content. A friend challenged me one time by saying “we can’t be content with one.” Our communities can’t be content with one suicide. We can’t be content with one child living on the streets. We can’t be content with one case of domestic violence. We can’t be content with one family that is underemployed. We can’t be content with one adult that is hungry.
If we are content with one, then we will be content with 10, 100, 1,000, or 10,000. We have to approach community challenges with the mindset that we can accept nothing less than making sure all people are cared for. We have a long way to go to be at zero, but with your continued support, we will strive for a community where all people are thriving.
