Sharing the Love of Christ!

In our summer-long series recapping the work of the agencies to which the Willmann Trust Board distributed grants, we will look at the work of the Christian Assistance Ministry, most often known as CAM. The agency has served over 1 million people since opening in 1977! St. George has partnered with CAM for many years in efforts to feed and clothe those experiencing life struggles, but I doubt many St George parishioners have an inkling of the breadth and depth of CAM’s work.

I learned from Development Director Sarah Kory that 90% of donations to CAM go directly to client services. Not many non-profits can make that claim. Additionally, 5% goes to fundraising and 5% goes to staff salaries. Grants are sought for expenditures other than client-based needs. CAM recently received a generous $50,000 grant from the Harvey Nijim Foundation to fund renovation of their warehouse which is showing growing disrepair in structure and in electric and water utilities. 

We know that CAM supplies food (40,000 people annually) and clothing (20,000 people annually), but I learned how many other urgent needs the agency provides to San Antonio, especially in the downtown area. 

The following services were provided during the 2018 year.

• Just as St. George furnishes backpacks for children in our area, CAM operates an “Adopt a Child for Back to School” program which supplied backpacks and exact required school supplies to 365 children last September.

• The agency provided Financial Assistance for such needs as prescriptions, utility bills, and ID recovery for upwards of 5,000 San Antonians.

• CAM furnished hair cuts to about 225 job-hunting San Antonians. 

• An Emergency Christmas Store helped parents of 1,013 children provide holiday gifts.

• It supplied Free Mailbox service to 330 individuals to receive mail.

• It provided Spiritual Support/Bible Study and Prayer to 7,200 persons.

• It also provided information and referral phone calls to up to 10,000 persons.

Of the 50,000 individuals CAM serves annually:

• 75% are working poor (families, single men and women, seniors, veterans from low income to poverty).

• 25% are homeless (couch surfing, recently homeless, or chronic homeless with mental and physical illnesses).

• 25% are children.

A vitally important service that CAM provides that might not cross the minds of St. George parishioners is ID recovery, encompassing birth certificates, Social Security cards, and Texas ID’s or Driver’s licenses. The task is difficult enough for those with a home, a phone number, a mailing address, a car, and access to money. However if you are homeless or without the means we in St. George can claim, the task is nearly impossible. Having no identifying documents is a roadblock to housing, employment, signing up for veteran’s programs, enrolling in health care, or receiving access to facilities such as Haven for Hope. Children cannot be enrolled in school without a birth certificate. CAM is the only entity in San Antonio that funds ID recovery and provides education as what is needed to recover such items. 

CAM is an organization helping people before they turn to government supports, thereby saving the community important resources and dollars. It also serves 50,000 people annually allowing them to stave off crises or at least survive until long-term solutions or programs can be accessed. It provides merciful services to those who will likely never be able to care for themselves due to physical or mental illness. Click Here to catch a live action of CAM's work.

I’ll close with CAM’s stated purpose: “To be a place that provides us with a means to share God’s love by being proximate with those who need it. To walk in their shoes, to hold their hands, to experience their needs. We can’t make a difference if we don’t know the people who need our help.”

Written by Pam Piedfort

Critical Link Between Treatment And

Long-Term Recovery

As part of Impact’s summer series focusing on agencies which the Willmann Trust Board helps to support through grants, we present Pay It Forward Clean and Sober Living, an independent facility on the campus of Haven for Hope. The agency has both men’s and women’s dorms for clients in recovery as they move from treatment to successful living. On its website, the organization defines its program in this way:

“Our programs have strict eligibility criteria as a condition of assistance or program participation, such as having a sponsor, attending recovery-related meetings, being employed or actively looking for work, random substance use screening and an absolute, zero-tolerance substance use policy. We also provide referral assistance to other collaborating agencies that help the client with job search assistance and work appropriate clothing.”

Impressively, Pay It Forward receives no government funding nor funding from Haven for Hope to cover its $400,000 yearly budget. Generous funding from foundations, individuals, and churches, such as the Willman Trust Board grant, fund the agency’s work.

Pay It Forward has two residential programs, Next Right Step which is housed on the campus of Haven for Hope and The Bridge which partners with 56 sober living residences in San Antonio, three in New Braunfels, and two in Seguin.

As an outsider visiting the Next Right Step dorms on Haven for Hope campus, I had a sense of family and home, supported by respect. CEO Hamilton Barton, Program Director Angelia Button, and Dormitory Manager Ben Brooks are quick to share their personal recovery stories and express their passion for their work.

Pay It Forward’s technique for moving individuals from homelessness to successful living is a system of accountability, structure, and hope. Many of the clients are coming from years of substance use behavior and possibly homelessness where their lives had little structure or accountability. As new residents of the dorms, men and women have job training and assistance with legal issues and must try to find employment in 30 days. Eighty-five percent of residents find work in 30 days and successfully hold their jobs longer than 90 days. A number of the residents are in college preparing for life-long professions.

In addition to off-campus employment, Program Director Button has revised and restructured a process of stipend opportunities for residents on Haven for Hope campus such as working in the warehouse, working grounds maintenance, staffing the chapel, etc. Most positions are facilitated through Haven which gives the participants the opportunity to earn some money while learning how to be productive. The on-campus work is intended to show residents some basic job skills without the additional pressure of having to hold a job in the community. Individuals can participate in a stipend program for 90 days which should allow them enough time to learn the routine of attending to their work schedules and responsibilities, and then they are required to get an off-campus job.

One of the available stipend programs is a partnership between Pay It Forward and agencies Rise Recovery, Alpha Home and Lifetime Recovery where residents staff a resource hotline in the evenings and on the weekends. The purpose of the phone line is to help link individuals needing assistance to specific resources.

As mentioned on its website, the agency has rigorous expectations regarding attending meetings (five a week including two off campus), being tested for substances, and working. Additionally, residents pay a small fee to live in the facility and are expected to keep their living space clean and help maintain the cleanliness of the general facility. All of this builds in the idea of being accountable to others and puts in place a structure missing from years of addictive behavior.

Residents living in the Phase One dorms start out in rooms with 14 beds. Phase Two rooms house only two residents each. As rooms open up in Phase Two, those in Phase One who have paid their fees and have no rule infractions are eligible to move, based on seniority. Perks such as a man-cave in the men’s dorm and an outdoor fenced, covered patio in the women’s dorm, and bigger and better-supplied kitchens are available in the Phase Two dorms.

In addition to receiving support in a number of life-improving areas from Pay It Forward, those working a program of recovery are strongly encouraged to participate in service to others. As Program Director Angie Button says, “We are currently sending individuals over to First Presbyterian church once a month to participate in a program where the church ministers to the homeless population by bringing them into the church, serving them with food, clothes, and access to services. Our residents attend to offer peer support.”

I feel there is much more to the Pay It Forward story so I urge you to visit the campus yourself and see the transformative work happening. If you would like to support Pay It Forward further, think about attending its annual fundraising luncheon.

Go to the link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pay-it-forward-2019-restoring-lives-luncheon-tickets-65573045745 for reservations. Also check out its website https://payitforwardsa.org/ for more information and testimonials.