Why the EFA program deserves another $20,000

Maybe it’s the grant writer in me or maybe it was the sheer volume of need I saw the day that I observed the inner workings of the Emergency Assistance Program at the Center of Hope, but I know for sure that the EFA program would easily put another twenty or heck, fifty thousand dollars to excellent use. To give an example of the volume, the 211 Helpline, the "911 number for social services" refers more callers to EFA than to any other social service program in the Tulsa area. (Read a Tulsa World article about it.)  The community members who apply to the EFA program have a direct need, a financial need, and come to the Salvation Army as an outlet of the community’s goodwill to get their need met.

Fortunately, The EFA application process is fairly straightforward. First, if a community member calls to inquire about financial assistance, they are directed to call back at 2pm to make an appointment. Appointments are made for the following business day, at 9am. At 9, applicants (of which there are usually between 20 and 40) come to see program specialists, Cathy and Heather,and fill out an application packet. The packet consists of just a few items: a photo id, the utility bill in question, verification of income (can be a current paycheck stub, DHS statement, or social security statement) and some sort of housing verification (rent receipt, lease agreement or mortgage papers). This usually takes about 15 minutes or so.

Then after packets are filled out, Cathy and Heather call each applicant up (by their folder number) and verify that they brought everything they need and to find out what their ‘story’ is -- that is, why they couldn’t pay their bill. For many, it was a matter of a fixed income and high summer bills not being compatible, for others, it's chronic unemployment. And of course, there’s always a handful of unusual circumstances: medical issues, immigration issues, and recent release from jail.
Applicants who I met ranged from families with children at home, to a great-grandmother toting a baby, to single moms, single dads, and ex-cons. Although the bills were high and the number of applicants lower, Cathy informed me that Christmas was the busiest season -- when the heating bills get big and families are trying to put together a good holiday for the kids.

4 Things You Don’t Know About Getting Financial Assistance from The Salvation Army

Recently, I left my cozy grantwriting cave, er, office at Tulsa Area Command and ventured over to our social services hub, the Center of Hope, in downtown Tulsa. I spent the morning shadowing a few different staff members as they went about their duties in the programs that we offer at the Center of Hope.  I spent the most time with the ladies who manage the day-to-day operations of the Emergency Financial Assistance program (EFA), Cathy and Heather. Cathy is a nearly 10 year Salvation Army veteran; she started working at the Center of Hope in 2003 and has been doing EFA for the past 5 years; she considers it her life work to assist families in need.

I was interested in learning about this program because I have a grant application that I’m putting together for a new funder- one that I know through my research is interested in social and community projects and has already given money to other local organizations similar to ours. And, as I was to learn, the EFA program is impressive in that it exemplifies what the Salvation Army does best: serves those in need, without discrimination.


1. Doesn’t matter who you are. The Emergency Financial Assistance program is open to everyone in need- regardless of home owner status or income. If you have a need, you can apply for assistance.

2. Helps with immediate needs. Most commonly, this looks like utility bills that are past due and/or in danger of being disconnected. You can bring your bill (along with a few other required items) and our case managers, like Cathy and Heather, will call the utility company on your behalf! (The woman pictured above didn't want us to use her name, but she was happy that we were able to help her with her untility bill!)

Vicki Thorne: blogger and grant writer

I'm so excited to introduce yet another member of our development team and a huge contributor to our social media efforts! Vicki Thorne joined our team here at the Army in July and has been a great addition. Vicki has lots of non-profit experience (working with YWCA, A New Leaf, Inc. and DVIS/Call Rape) as well as a firm foundation in writing and communications (Composition instructor at TU & TCC). So far she has been working tirelessly on some new funding for us as well as reinvigorating our social media presence.  Vicki is a Tulsan to her core with a love for midtown.  She recent finished renovating a classic Lortondale flat -opped home.  In her spare time Vicki and her husband attend LifeChurch and serve our state as a DHS Bridge Resource (i.e. Foster) Family. She always has great ideas and great stories to share and  I think you will be hearing a lot more from her on this blog in the future!

-Lindsay

Day of Caring a success!

Each year the Salvation Army is fortunate to partner with the Tulsa Area United Way for Day of Caring.  For those of you not familiar with Day of Caring, it’s a Friday in September when dozens of businesses descend upon deserving non-profits to help provide much-needed services. It also serves as a way for businesses to give back to the community.  This year, The Salvation Army had volunteers from 16 different companies provide a little TLC to our six different Boys and Girls Clubs and the Center of Hope.  Many of the companies are return volunteers from previous years. 

The great thing about Day of Caring is that it’s a perfect testament to what people can do when they work together!  This year projects ranged from a cook-out for the guests at the Center of Hope courtesy of Mazzio's to the cleaning of the fence line at the Sapulpa Boys and Girls club, courtesy of the Williams Companies. 

With 16 companies providing an average of 20 volunteers per company and donating roughly 4 hours of their time that’s 1,280 hours of time donated.

Get to know Jenny McElyea

Jenny McElyea started as the Volunteer Coordinator At The Tulsa Area Command In March. Since then, we have all grown to appreciate her enthusiasm, warmth and surprising wit. I say surprising because although at first glance Jenny  appears to be a stay-behind-the-scenes, quiet and reserved young woman, when you get to know her she can be side-splittingly hilarious. We learned at our two recent golf tournaments that Jenny also has the qualities of the Energizer bunny. Long after those of us who are a little older are exhausted, Jenny keeps going, going and going. Jenny already has some huge volunteer successes under her belt including the recent Day of Caring!
-Sallie

QuarterShare uses beef for relief

People love their beef: the United States is #2 in the world for meat-eaters (Luxembourg is #1 – who knew?). I grew up hearing the slogan “Beef: it’s what’s for dinner.” But really, it’s what’s for snack time too.  Walk into any QuikTrip and you’ll see a section of beef sticks and jerky. There’s a new company that is using beef… for relief. QuarterShare works just like the name says: the company will donate one quarter of all beef snack sticks sold back to local charities, food pantries and after-school programs.

We met QuarterShare’s President and CEO, Richard Cranford, while planning our two summer golf tournaments.  Richard has been successful in executive management and is the founder and CEO of three medical device companies based in Tulsa.  Richard created the QuarterShare Beef4Relief program in hopes of helping several charities throughout the nation, starting in Tulsa. QuarterShare was a sponsor for both the 13th Annual Boys and Girls Clubs Golf Tournament and the 5th Annual Women Helping Women Golf Tournament. 

“Crafty Treasures Bazaar” starts Friday!

Beautiful handcrafted jewelry. Authentic  Native American pottery. Scrumptious baked goods. Hillbilly handicrafts. WHAT? Something doesn’t fit into the much-anticipated Crafty Treasures Bazaar and it looks like it is the hillbilly crafts of  Captain Jay Spalding (photo below right). The bazaar will be held at Area Command and is organized by the Citadel Corps where Jay and his wife Jamie are officers. “Please don’t make it sound like the whole bazaar is some kind of redneck craft show,” asked Capt.  Jamie and the Citadel’s busy assistant, Charity Mitchell.

I promised I wouldn’t  as we checked out the websites of some of the vendors. I’m going to be doing some early Christmas shopping at the jewelry booths if they are as wonderful as they look on line. (photo above left) The bazaar was also held last year, but this year it has expanded from the gym of the Citadel to The Salvation Army’s Area Command at 924 S. Hudson. Charity and Capt. Jamie have been planning the Crafty Treasures Bazaar for months and are proud of the elegant crafts that the hand-selected vendors will be selling.

We helped build a house!

Volunteer Coordinator Jenny McElyea recruited six coworkers from Area Command, Major Jim Taylor and five ARC program participants to help finish a house for Habitat for Humanity on a recent Friday. We were happily surprised to be joined by the housing maintenance staff of the Mental Health Association in Tulsa. In other words, there were plenty of folks to get the job done. Partnering with the association was nothing new to The Salvation Army, because one of our case managers at the Center of Hope, Jason Wolfe, works as the case manager for two participants in the association’s “A Way Home Tulsa” program. 

“You’ll get to say that you helped build a house,” Jenny had said when she recruited us, and indeed we did. She and Carrie Salce, special events and fundraising director, got the toughest jobs, measuring and cutting linoleum tile that covered most of the three-bedroom house. They had plenty of guidance from Habitat construction supervisor Rick Stout who told me a funny story about volunteer builders. It seems we hate to throw anything away. “The volunteers couldn’t stand to waste any drywall, so they used every little piece. Their walls looked like a patchwork quilt,” Rick said.

Golfer Hits Hole-in-One...

...at 5th Annual Women Helping Women Golf Tournament .
Ladies love golf! Dozens of women grabbed their golf clubs and put on their Monday best to be a part of the 5th Annual Women Helping Women Golf Tournament on August 6 at MeadowBrook Country Club.  Mother Nature cooperated with us this time for a nice morning, although the Oklahoma summer heat started to wave upon us towards the end of play. 

One of our lucky golfers, Sue Maxwell, got a Hole-in-One on Hole #5! Her prize: a trip for four to the Silver Legacy Resort in Reno, Nevada! Sue says she’s never hit a hole-in-one before so she’s very excited about her big prize! Sue was also a last-minute replacement for another player who couldn’t attend. I bet she’s glad she said “yes” to playing in the tournament! 

"While there remains one dark soul ..."

...without the light of God, I'll fight. I'll fight to the very end." General William Booth made what became know as his commitment in a speech the year he died, in 1912. The phrase "the light of God" makes me think of a question I often get asked about the Center of Hope. People want to know if the center requires people to sit through a sermon or read the Bible before they can eat a meal or stay the night. We don't.
 
An equally salient question would be "If The Salvation Army is all about saving souls, then why not?" First, it would be discriminatory, and our mission is to serve without discrimination. I believe the second reason goes back to the words of Gen. Booth. He said "one dark soul without the light of God," not "without God."  The light of God is all over the Center of Hope, all over our Boys and Girls Clubs, all over our Corps. It's about doing, not preaching.

While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, I’ll fight..."

General William Booth made that remark in 1912, probably 80 years before meth. When I think of people who are in and out of prison, I think of people I interviewed for my blog series about meth addiction. Everyone I talked to had criminal records that spanned decades. It also makes me think of a man I met last Friday. He was an Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) program participant and he said that prison for him was like a revolving door. It seems like the equation is meth addiction = prison, or worse. To read about The Salvation Army and addictions  click here. To read about a meth addict recovering at the ARC, click here. To read a hopeful post about how The Salvation Army helps kids make smart choices about drugs and other peer pressures to prevent drug addiction, click here.

-Sallie 

"While children go hungry..."

General William Booth said, "While little children go hungry as they do now, I’ll fight.." and his mission continues today. Every year during Christmas week there are nearly 4,000 families whose  children will not go hungry because of The Salvation Army. Those families have signed up for gifts from the Angel Tree for their children and are told they will get a food basket too. When I first saw the amount of food given, I realized that although part of it is contained in a bushel basket, the rest of it will feed a family of four for a week. We give every Angel Tree family enough food to make a holiday dinner with a whole turkey or chicken, all the fixings, potatoes, apples, a gallon of milk, butter and enough baking supplies to last a month.

"While women weep..."

General William Booth said  "As women weep as they do now, I'll fight." The Salvation Army Tulsa Area Command continues his fight. Arletta Robinson, director of the Center of Hope, often gives tours of the homeless shelter and social services center and people often get emotional. To read the post that goes with this photograph, click here. 

General Booth’s fight continues a hundred years after his death

In all the photos I’ve seen of The Salvation Army’s founder, General William Booth, he is a wild-looking man, his beard long and untrimmed, his features gaunt and his white hair thick and out of control. A bronze plaque with a likeness of Gen. Booth hangs on the wall of our Center of Hope and I’ll often look around at our homeless guests and think that Gen. Booth would fit right in. I think he’d like that, because as a minister he never seemed to put himself above anyone, homeless, drug addicted or alcoholic. He helped them instead. To listen to Booth speak about his ministry, click here. 

Monday is the 100th anniversary of Gen. Booth's death. He grew up in a Methodist church and had read the Bible as a child. His family lost everything in a bad investment and his father became alcoholic. At age 13, Gen. Booth went to work in a pawn shop in England where families sold their valuables to feed their children. Gen. Booth was all too familiar with poverty. He moved to London as a young man and started preaching on the streets of East London, considered a slum at the time.

The streets there were a lot meaner than in Tulsa, with open prostitution, opium dens and starving, begging children. Now our social ills seem more hidden with human trafficking, meth labs and sadly, starving children still. So maybe things haven’t changed that much.

Holiday Help

Do you know someone who may need assistance this holiday season?  As most local folks already know-- we help thousands in the Tulsa Metro with Christmas needs each year.  For the third year we are offering Christmas assistance registration BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.  Don't fret though, we have 4,000 appointments available!  

RIGHT NOW is the time to come by our headquarters at 924 S. Hudson and pick up an appointment letter. They are available Mon-Thurs from 9a.m.-3p.m.  Each letter will have a date and time for families to come and apply for assistance.  The letter also has information about what to bring and what not to bring. Assistance is available to low income families who have proof of income and expenses, as well as some other paperwork.


Every year I have people ask me, how do you get angels for the Angel Tree? This is the first step in that process. We hand out appointments in August, then we take appointments through October and finally we put all the trees out with the Angels in November.  This system provides food and gifts for local families who need it most.  

Don't be shy, if you know someone who might need help, please tell them that they can come and get an appointment. The Salvation Army wants every child in Tulsa to have a smile on their face this Christmas. 

You can CLICK HERE for additional information.

Merry Christmas!
Lindsay

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma donates matching grant

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma is giving The Salvation Army a matching grant of up to $15,000 to help us help the wildfire victims and it’s not a second too soon. I just can’t get my mind off the stories I’ve heard from the Mannford area. It’s hard for me to imagine how people are coping with such loss.

Major Jim Taylor has been to the emergency center several times in the last few days. Today, he told me about meeting a man named James and his dog, Jojo. James lives a mile from the highway, “out in the middle of nowhere,” Maj. Taylor said.

 “He said he lives in a mobile home and Jojo woke him up as soon as it caught fire. He escaped in his truck."  James makes a living by collecting junk metal in a trailer he pulls behind his truck. He left the trailer behind and the wheels melted. So here’s a guy who lost his home and his livelihood all in one night.

"He’s just thankful for his life and his dog,” Maj. Taylor said."

Golf Tournament A Big Success

Triple-digit temperatures did not slow down 160 golfers at the 13th Annual Boys and Girls Clubs Charity Golf Tournament. Golfers played in the morning and afternoon (four golfers played both flights) at Tulsa Country Club. This tournament ended up being our most successful yet, bringing in more than $64,000!Golfers were treated to breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack and plenty of goodies at the event. Games at the event included “Luck Be A Lady” where the golfers could take a closer tee shot to the hole. Money from that game benefits our Mabee Red Shield girls basketball team. 

A big thank you to our 2012 Golf Committee: Honorary Chairman John Harper; Commissioner Al Colby (also the 2013 Honorary Chairman); Gary Paxton; Jeff Sanders; Bill McKamey; Cason Carter; Aaron Massey; Steve Soule and Fred Daniel III.  These men worked very hard to ensure all of the players had a good time at the event.
 

Thank you Tulsa!

It's amazing. As soon as Tulsans get wind of a need, they are calling, e-mailing, Tweeting and asking on Facebook how they can help.  We asked for water and Gatorade, and we got it by the truckful. Thank you, Tulsa for responding so quickly and generously to our request to the community to help us help the firefighters and others who desperately needed hydration. Sunday and Monday, you supplied us with FIFTEEN PALLETS of bottled water and Gatorade. For two days, we've had a steady stream of cars, SUVs and trucks coming to the Tulsa Area Command bringing water, Gatorade and more. Two of my coworkers, Arnie and Billy, (left) took a load to the State Emergency Command near Mannford today and I'm sure there will be another trip tomorrow. And that's Major Jim Taylor below, unloading supplies. Thank you,Tulsa for helping the helpers! 

-Sallie

How you can help first responders

The Salvation Army will be accepting donations of non-perishable snacks such as granola bars and chips Mon, Aug. 6 to distribute to those organizations active in the wildfire response. We need snacks that don't melt in the heat. Please bring them by the The Salvation Army Area Command office at 924 S. Hudson (off 11th St. between Yale and Sheridan) between 9 AM and 4 PM. The Salvation Army will collect and then distribute donated items as needed to other organizations responding in the state. This is being requested by Oklahoma Emergency Management.

 
For the latest on how you can help, follow us on Facebook. 

Red Shield kid reunited with artwork

A few months ago, Advisory Board member LouAnn Potter Smith was at an auction to raise money for Tulsa Glassblowing Studio. She admired a glass sculpture in the auction and flipped it over. “ Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club”  was etched on the bottom. Kids from the Mabee Red Shield Boys and Girls Club took lessons from the studio last spring. Lou Ann was so excited that someone from our organization created the sculpture that she bought it and gave it to Major Jim Taylor to welcome him to Tulsa.

He asked me to photograph it for the blog, then decided to go one step further. Who created the striking piece?  I volunteered to find the artist and a few minutes later Jerome Smith, director of the Mabee Red Shield Boys and Girls Club walked into my office. I showed him the photograph and he shouted “That’s Charles’ sculpture!"  Charles is the son of Jerome and Jean Smith, Boys and Girls Club’s administrative assistant.