By Laura Lambe | Executive Vice-President
Thank you for all your support, we are doing great in our GlobalGiving challenge and we are looking forward to continue making a difference in the lives of our heroes with your support!
We want to share with you some amazing success stories!
Texas Center Point Veterans’ Success Stories
Cheryl
Cheryl first came to Texas Center Point in April of 2013 seeking assistance with employment and housing. Cheryl is a single Caucasian 55 year old disabled female Air Force Veteran with a strong background in office administration, but she had been both homeless and unemployed for the past three years. Not unlike the majority of the Austin veteran homeless population, Cheryl was unaware of any support system that she could fall back on, and she was slowly sinking into a depression. Texas Center Point HVRP staff immediately referred her to the VA to seek counseling from a VA psychologist, and also to seek housing assistance from the VA’s VASH program. Staff also referred her to a local non-profit, Caritas that also assists the homeless with housing. Cheryl met with HVRP staff on a weekly basis for life skills training, mock interviewing, to receive Texas Center Point issued gas card to conduct job search, to utilize our computer lab for job searching, and to keep updated with job opportunities. In late August Texas Center Point’s Program Coordinator connected Cheryl to the hiring manager for the Texas Coalition for People with Disabilities and arranged an interview for her. By mid- September Cheryl had secured employment with the Texas Coalition for People with Disabilities making $12.50 per hr, and by the end of September she had also secured an apartment. Texas Center Point staff will continue to follow up on Cheryl, and we are confident that she will continue to work and live to the best of her abilities.
Keiron
Keiron is an African American male Army veteran with a wife and two children. Mr. Greenwood enrolled in Texas Center Point’s program seeking job search assistance and rental assistance, as he had just received an eviction notice from his landlord, and was desperately reaching for a lifeline. Texas Center Point’s HVRP staff contacted the Foundation for the Homeless (local non-profit) and set up a meeting between Mr. Greenwood and one of their Case Managers. Within days, Mr. Greenwood received rental assistance from the Foundation for the Homeless and was afforded another month at his apartment. Although Mr. Greenwood wasn’t unemployed, the part time job that he had been working at wasn’t paying him enough money to meet his rent or support his family. Mr. Greenwood made it a point to come to our office at least once a week for life skills training, job coaching/job search training and transportation assistance. Texas Center Point’s Program Coordinator set up an interview for Mr. Greenwood with one of FedEx’s hiring managers and the interview went well. Two days after the initial interview Mr. Greenwood had secured a full time position as a driver for FedEx making $14.00 per hour, but since he had just secured this new position and had not yet received a paycheck he was facing eviction again. This time, Texas Center Point stepped in and provided Mr. Greenwood with rental assistance, and his landlord forgave the remaining debt. Texas Center Point staff will continue to follow up on Mr. Greenwood and we are confident that he will continue to work with FedEx and take care of himself and his family.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
