Reflecting on 2021 and Creating Stronger Communities
January 7, 2022 | By: Doug Cowan, CSL President & CEO
CSL Board Member, Ginger Williams and her husband Elisha take a moment on the dance floor for a photo.
At CSL’s annual Gala on November 6, 2021, the City of Kansas City mask mandate had been lifted, and a sense of normalcy seemed to descend upon us. In many ways, brighter days seemed to be ahead. Clearly, COVID has reared its ugly head with another surge of infections that cripples many parts of our society.
This is reflective of a larger story about 2021. Many people, myself included, figured that, surely, we’d be past COVID and helping families recover in the wake of the pandemic.
On February 6, 2021, about 100 CSL staff – paid and volunteer – trekked to Bartle Hall on a snowy Saturday. We were among the first Kansas Citians to receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot. Organizers made vaccines available for front-line social service workers; professionals who had, for almost a year, been in the throes of COVID relief work. After I got my shot, I thought that, surely, this was the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
We know how the story has gone. Vaccine hesitancy has allowed variants to emerge and strike our communities again and again. So, 2021 was another year of helping families weather the proverbial storm and work to recover in meaningful ways.
Reflecting on 2021
Here are some of the things we did together last year:
Students enjoy their new backpacks at our Back to School Fair.
delivered more than 2,000,000 meals to families from eastern Kansas and western Missouri,
connected with more than 6,000 families, comprised of 20,000 individuals, seeking some sort of assistance,
provided direct aid of more than $926,000 for rent, utility, and mortgage assistance,
through the Federal ERA (Emergency Rental Assistance) Program, CSL distributed $10,395,000 in rent and utility assistance to more than 2,500 renter families in suburban Jackson County
connected 239 families to $72,550 worth of prescription medication, hearing, or vision assistance
engaged and coached more than 500 applicants in our New Skills training initiative (with more than 150 that were pipelined into a tuition-free training program),
launched new certificated trainings in Medical Billing & Coding, Phlebotomy, General Construction, and Sustainable Materials Handling (warehousing/logistics),
aided 53 of our neighbors, whose mental or physical special needs require navigate customized employment navigation, and we placed 45 of them into work with an average wage of $13.77/hour
helped 45+ formerly homeless families remain safely and stably housed,
partnered to give out 100,000 pairs of Bombas socks,
collaborated with the Royals and other donors to distribute 3,000 backpacks and 3,000 pairs of shoes,
hosted our first Hispanic Back to School event that was only available in Spanish,
partnered with health departments to host or co-host dozens of COVID-19 vaccine clinics,
Local Independence neighbor looks at different gifts for her children at CSL’s Christmas Store.
provided Christmas support for more than 2,000 families, while include more than 10,000 individual gifts
oversaw community support services for 850 families at Hawthorne Place Apartments (which included graduating five families into homeownership) and Colony Plaza Apartments in Excelsior Springs,
established a milestone at Hawthorne Place Apartments by having total resident escrow savings accounts (lifetime contributions) go past $500,000
kept our two micro-branches of Holy Rosary Credit Union open and able to assist families, and closed 58 small-dollar loans
provided intense case management services for more than 250 families in our school-based Family Stability Initiative,
offered 352 families a total of 612 Financial Coaching sessions,
helped 217 families improve their monthly household income by an average of $1,145/month,
moved 170 individuals towards better credit scores by an average improvement of 58 points,
built assets and reduced liabilities for 140 families that improved their net worth position
filed 110 Federal tax returns (average refund of $1,931/return) and 63 State of Missouri returns (average refund of $439/return) and saved filers an average of $184 in preparer fees,
kept BlendWell open as a safe place to gather and connect,
and continued homeless outreach throughout Jackson County to check on our most vulnerable neighbors during the pandemic.
Our fundraising and development team had a record year in 2021, successfully engaging new and existing donors to give of their time, talent, and treasure to CSL. Our special events, which are a catalyst to making new connections to CSL, and strengthening existing ones, had to pivot and connect with donors virtually, and had great success in doing so. The team eclipsed pre-pandemic records for active donors (1,556) new donors (413), retained donors (911), number of online gifts (453), and total gifts (3,728).
Internally, we made great strides within many business functions, including human resources, accounting, technology, social media, media relations, transportation, delivery, logistics, and everyone worked to keep our buildings safe and clean.
Our Board of Directors continued its support of a Diversity and Inclusion Steering Team (DIST), comprised of board, staff, and community connections. The DIST, among many things, engages the organization in important dialogue around the role of diversity and inclusion to create a stronger CSL, and to be part of a social services delivery culture that is informed and responsive to the broad needs of our community.
Looking Forward
The world is changing at an unbelievable pace, and we are working hard to keep up. Changes in how people work and how they live are changing, largely due to technology and the pandemic. As always, we have to meet people where they are at to meaningfully connect with them.
From a response standpoint, we remain very involved in keeping families stably housed. In 2022, we will be continuing our administration of Jackson County’s Federal ERA (Emergency Rental Assistance) Program funds, which will be in the millions of dollars. So many families find themselves rent-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income in rent, and rent rates keep rising. We must continue to help families navigate housing, whether owned or rented, that is affordable for their income.
We are also still partnering with the County to help transition families from Heart Village Mobile Home Park, where the County will be building its new detention center.
The number of our neighbors residing on the streets is reaching crisis level, and this is in all communities. We must collaborate on regional responses to homelessness.
Our long-term recovery efforts are rooted in employment. A new job, through our connections with employers, or through a CSL-supported training program, provides the lift families need to break cycles of poverty. There are few ways for families to truly change their circumstances and long-term economic trajectory, other than through employment. Connecting to a new career can vault a family into the middle class. We have more than 15,000 email addresses from families that digitally engaged with us in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 and beyond, we have to build on that connection, and create a pipeline from emergency relief to economic growth. As employers have skyrocketed their wages, we are helping families navigate the ever-changing world of work.
Beth Domanski and her family move into their new home after graduating from
CSL’s Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Program.
Wealth- and asset-building tools and strategies work hand-in-hand with recovery. The Family Self-Sufficiency Program at Hawthorne Place Apartments, run by CSL, has helped families, once they gained new or improved employment, save more than $500,000 since 2017. This opens the door for home ownership, higher education, credit repair, transportation, and the ability for a family to absorb a temporary crisis. Since 2017, we have moved 17 Hawthorne renters to homeownership.
Thank You
I hope the accomplishments listed inspire you, and the opportunities ahead excite you. Our work simply would not have been possible without you. I look forward to the many ways we can continue to work together to make our communities stronger.
