Over the years, I’ve written a few blog posts about CSL’s work in helping connect families to wealth- and asset-development opportunities. As you can read here, most of our work in this arena has been part of HUD’s Family Self-Sufficiency Program, and we’ve helped our neighbors at Hawthorne Place Apartments save more than $500,000 over the last five years. Twenty graduates have used their savings to buy a house which can have a multi-generational impact on wealth and asset-development.

Living in Independence my whole life, I’m fond of all things Harry S. Truman. President Truman once said, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” My sister-in-law, Becca Alexander, was a voracious reader; something she did her whole life. She lost a heroic, four-year battle to cancer on December 27, 2021, at the age of 40.

Sometimes in life, you just meet people that have “it.” You can try to use a lot of adjectives to describe them, but when someone has “it,” you just know. Merideth Rose is one of those people.

June, a month of celebration, born through the struggles of continuously demanding change beginning with the Stonewall riots in 1969 to which set change in motion for the future of the LGBTQIA+ community. While PRIDE month is seen as being about love, acceptance and being proud of who you are, it has been a long road to get to where we are today, but there is still work to be done!

It’s not just a t-shirt, it’s a welcome mat. June is often recognized as Pride Month, and Pride colors have become recognized as a symbol of welcoming and acceptance, especially among the LGBTQ+ community. This year, CSL developed shirts that we have made available to our staff this month. While they might be fashionable, they are more than a shirt for us.

In our work at CSL, whether it be workforce development, financial coaching, basic needs assistance, housing, or other program offerings, we try to have a “2-Gen” approach to our work. “2-Gen” is an industry buzz term that’s short for Two-Generation, and in long form, we speak about a “Two-Generation Approach” to reducing poverty. What does all this mean?

A natural human question is, “where do we go next?” In fact, it’s a question that has defined all of human history. We do something, and we ask what’s next. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the “what’s next” was handed to us. CSL found great purpose and resolve in helping families recover from the pandemic. As I write this, we’re two years into unprecedented amounts of relief for families.

Thankfully, we see an end to the pandemic of COVID-19. So, this naturally begs the questions of “what’s next?”

As the month of March comes to what seems like an accelerated close, the four-week celebration of all things women - their stories of survival, pursuit and the uplifting synergy found in the bonds of sisterhood - seems simply not long enough. In a courageous measure to take a different approach to unpacking the amazing fortitude of the women it sees and serves, Community Services League (CSL) has been honored to be the storytelling vehicle of one of its own, Vice President of Community Development, Jennifer Manuleleua.

Over the last three weeks, Community Services League (CSL)’s Vice President of Community Development Jennifer Manuleleua has helped cultivate a uniquely different approach to the agency’s practice of storytelling by sharing her own. In great courage, she has ventured into a space of vulnerability and at times, the fear of the unknown. She realized her voice had the power to evoke a variety of emotional connections across both men and women – disbelief, uncertainty, compassionate waves of care or the ability to simply relate.

In Part 2, Merideth again invited Jennifer to venture into a space of brave conversation to describe the initial moments in which she believed a life outside of darkness could potentially exist. As she would divulge through periods that still proved painful yet purposeful, Jennifer shared how the hope of safety, life purpose and a resilient future gave way to the possibility of a healing and hopeful breakthrough.

In 2020, CSL committed out loud and in courageous action, it was time to lead and lean in a different direction. It was time to not only tell to the countless stories of how its neighbors had been lifted up and out of poverty, but CSL as an organization was ready to lean into culture: seeing, valuing, celebrating and most importantly embracing the experiences of a wide variety of people; many of which for years had gone unseen, and truly unheard.

On March 17, 2017, CSL’s proposed action plan for administering the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program at Hawthorne Place Apartments (HPA) was approved. In the following five years, HPA residents have escrowed more than $512,000 through the program.

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.

Larry first came to CSL in October 2020 to seek help from Employment Services. He was previously diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury from an assault, depression, and anxiety, appeared to have very poor self-esteem, and did not feel that he had any worth in the world.

Sometimes, the journey to self-sufficiency is a long one, fraught with adversity that threatens to derail you from your goals. This is a story of resiliency, courage, resourcefulness and a profound belief that eventually, life will get better.

In 2016, with seed money from the City of Independence (Community Development Block Grant dollars), Community Services League was able launch its first Bridges to Career Opportunities training cohort. That cohort consisted of 15 women in Independence who all received tuition-provided training to become CNAs (Certified Nursing Assistants).

As our area’s largest provider of homeless services, people want to talk all the time about the issue of homelessness. Right now, the issue is everywhere around us.

Beginning June 1, Merideth (Parrish) Rose will be serving as the Chief People Officer at Community Services League.

I’d like to share some news that shows the power of our neighbors to make huge strides in 2020 and made 2020 their best year yet.

Helping low-income families remain stably housed is something that CSL has helped with since we were formed in 1916.