OVERVIEW

MEANINGFUL AND LASTING CHANGE.

With more than a century of service, Community Services League has made meaningful and lasting change in the lives of our neighbors living in Eastern Jackson County and beyond. We do it by providing help today for those struggling to make ends meet. Through those relationships, we offer hope for tomorrow while making connections to coaches who care and resources to build financial stability and self-sufficiency. Each year we provide integrated, life changing services to nearly 20,000 individuals, and connect thousands more to temporary assistance to get through tough economic times. It’s a mission built on Bess Truman’s legacy of caring for neighbors in need. A mission that continues, with a passion that is as strong as ever.

Impact by the numbers.

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.

• 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.

• 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 with 23 graduates using their savings account as a down payment for their first home. We have built on this success by securing $875,000 in grant funding to pilot asset development in Northwest Independence.

• 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.

• 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.

• We celebrated stories and successes, encapsulated in our Cultural Connections programming, within our community from Black Americans, women, LGBTQ+, LatinX, and Asian American/Pacific Islanders.

• 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. Your giving allows us to be there for your community.

• To help address the rising amount of homelessness in our area, we have 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.

• In 2022, we helped our 500th community member with a disability achieve an employment milestone through Vocational Rehabilitation. 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 disabilities.

Visit our blog page to view a full recap of 2022.