Hands joined in service can renew humanity.
Hands That Serve is a non-profit organization with a mission dedicated to providing concrete help and financial support to those in need. This support is dependant upon local businesses and individuals who want to give back to their community and ensure a brighter future for St. Louis.
This was our first year for fundraisers at local St. Louis restaurants. We kicked off the school year with an event at Buffalo Wild Wings and celebrated the holidays with a great fundraising party at Helen Fitzgerald’s. Both events were a lot of fun and very well attended thanks to the power of facebook. These events didn’t hold a candle to the money raised from private and corporate donations.
We are overwhelmed by the generosity of our many benefactors. 2011 started out a bit slow, but once we let our friends and corporate sponsors know we were in need, they really came through for us. This generosity has enabled us to provide a hot lunch to 200 people each week. The line for lunch begins forming at about 10:30 am on Fridays and Saturdays at St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church in downtown St. Louis. We are told that everyone looks forward to our wonderful cheeseburgers from Rally’s.
Although feeding those in need is our primary focus, we also provide housing assistance to help keep people off the streets and into a secure setting. Additionally, we work with our Community Colleges to provide scholarship assistance to those who are motivated to pursue an education in order to improve their life circumstances.
Education and Training
Hands That Serve allocated $3,500 worth of scholarship money to the St. Louis Community Colleges Allied Health Program.
One of our scholarship recipients is a divorced mother of 2, who used her funds from the Scholarship to purchase HIT (Health, Information & Technology) textbooks. This young woman has not been able to work full-time since 2009 when her daughter became sick and is currently undergoing dialysis three times a week. Our recipient is getting close to the end of her degree program and looks forward to being able to support herself and her children.
Another of our scholarships went to a mother of two sons, who used her scholarship funds to purchase textbooks for her nursing program. She anticipates graduating from the STLCC nursing program in December of 2012. After graduation this determined woman would like to work in a hospital with trauma and ICU.
Housing Assistance
Thanks to donations from “Hands That Serve,” six homeless families had the chance to re-establish themselves in decent, affordable housing during the past year. The Catholic Charities Housing Resource Center used the funds to pay security deposits, utility deposits and/or first month’s rent for these families. All of the families had experienced crises that pushed them into homelessness. They have modest monthly incomes – enough to pay rent and utilities – but they could not save enough to cover the up-front costs associated with moving to a new place. At Catholic Charities Housing Resource Center, their case managers inspect clients’ new apartment for safety, help them create a viable household budget, and connect them with helpful community resources, such as food pantries and employment programs.
The experience transforms their lives, as follows:
O.C, a former drug addict, has been clean and sober for several years now. The 43-year-old had been living in a transitional housing program for homeless women and was ready to get a place of her own. CCHRC guided her in creating a viable household budget and in searching for an affordable apartment. Because she had saved money while in transitional housing, Ms. Cole only needed help with a utility deposit. During a recent follow-up visit with her case manager, Ms. Cole said she had been reunited with her daughter, who was removed from her custody years ago. She and the daughter are rebuilding their relationship, which makes Ms. Cole happier than she has been in many years.
D. K. and M. K. are sisters. They lived together in a small bungalow in south St. Louis. M. K.– who is 60 years old – is disabled and suffering at a relatively young age from dementia. The two women (D.K. is 52) last year endured a series of crises and missed making their mortgage payments for several months. The house was lost to foreclosure, which the sisters did not realize until a sheriff arrived at their door one day. D. and M. wound up in an emergency shelter, an environment which was stressful for them. CCHRC quickly found the sisters each a unit in a subsidized housing complex not far from their original home. Happy to be back in their neighborhood, the sisters now are thriving.
Funds from Hands That Serve gave these families a fresh start. Our organization contributed an additional $5,020 to the Housing Resource Center since November 2010 (when our last report was submitted). This brings the total donated since June 2007 to $22,420.
Karen Wallensak from the Catholic Charities Housing Resource Center states: “Contributors to Hands That Serve can be assured that CCHRC spends donations carefully on families who truly need decent, safe and affordable housing. We seek to use your funds as the final piece of the puzzle, after clients have done everything possible with their own resources. This strategy enables us to maximize the number of people who benefit from your generous gifts.
Back On Track
Our Back on Track Program continues to support those who are working very hard to earn a living and maintain housing.
A man who comes to St. Vincent’s regularly was helped by HTS to secure housing. He was living in the woods last winter and was suffering from frostbite. We helped with some medical expenses and housing deposit.
HTS paid one month’s rent for a woman who recently lost one of her two jobs was struggling to make ends meet. It got her through a difficult month and now she has found another job and is managing nicely.
A family of four was forced out of their rental house because it was condemned. They found another rental and could manage the monthly payments but needed assistance from HTS to pay the security deposit.
An 86 year old woman’s Social Security check got delayed and she needed to pay her rent asap as her landlord was threatening eviction, so HTS stepped in and covered the rent.
Funding from the Back On Track program helped pay the electric bill for several families during the winter months.
Hands That Serve paid a mortgage company one month’s fee to help a young family avoid foreclosure during the Christmas holidays.
We are so grateful to all of our many benefactors and are so proud of the things that we are able to do together to help our brothers and sisters in need. Generosity, kindness, compassion and service to others are the things that renew humanity. The future of our community is in our hands, and Hands That Serve are strengthened when linked together.
Hands That Serve is grateful to offer local businesses the privilege of helping others through service and tithing. Our service to the St. Louis area has increased steadily since our humble beginning in 2003. We were founded by a great humanitarian, Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui, who taught us that hands joined in service can renew humanity.
Donations can now be made here on our web site and on facebook.