True Light Family Resource Center, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, founded in 2006, provides individuals with a hand up to overcome living unhoused and regularly sees women and their families enjoy positive new starts with support from their programs and resources. The individualized support True Light offers is so impactful that people who have utilized their resources often return to volunteer or provide donations. The frequency and number of these full-circle moments speak to the dedication of True Light’s staff and the impact they make by building relationships with individuals through compassion, humanity, and understanding. True Light’s founder and director, Pastor Alice Piggee-Wallack, MSW, and her assistant Sandie Anderson find strength in being able to uplift others through love and support. Their drive to continue doing this work comes from constantly seeing people successful and thriving in Kansas City after receiving the supportive services the organization provides – gratitude they say they never take for granted.
Understanding How Homelessness Happens
What makes True Light unique to other similar resources in Kansas City, Missouri is their focus on women who seek shelter. True Light offers the only walk-in, women-only day shelter in the metro as well as the only women-only transitional living program that doesn’t require an addiction diagnosis for entry. From November through March, their day shelter transitions into an overnight emergency cold-weather shelter for women and children. In addition to their women’s day shelter, Emancipation Station, and their women-only transitional living program, Freedom House, they also offer a number of emergency services for both men and women. These services include providing free clothing, food, outdoor living supplies, hygiene supplies, and diapers through a Happy Bottoms partnership. They also assist with I.D. documentation replacement and emergency assistance for rent, utilities, and transportation. True Light provides needed resources and utilizes their staff, master’s level interns, and a volunteer LMSW, to work alongside those they serve and teach life skills that provide guidance in acquiring housing, employment, and mental health services. According to Piggee-Wallack, utility and rent assistance is one of their most-utilized services, which highlights the many ways people can suddenly find themselves unhoused or in danger of becoming so. “A lot of our clients who are not homeless will be on SSI or some other form of Medicaid or disability and such – it’s not enough,” she said. “One cannot possibly subsist off the income that they are receiving, especially for housing.” Though a number of the people they serve would qualify for income-based housing, there simply isn’t enough income-based housing available. They also serve individuals re-entering society after incarceration which disqualifies them from many housing options, and if they cannot afford the market price, they are left stranded on the street. Piggee-Wallack and Anderson urge people who do not similarly struggle to understand that while we tend to attribute blame to those unhoused for needing shelter, it can happen to anyone in the blink of an eye. With rent prices on the rise, and wages remaining the same, it’s easy for anyone to fall behind, even if they are employed. “If you make a low income, and you can’t make ends meet from month to month, it doesn’t take much for you to slip under pretty fast,” Anderson said. It’s common for people living paycheck to paycheck to pay bills in partial payments to stretch every last dollar. This can be detrimental as the cost of living continues to rise. “It doesn’t take long before some of those bills accumulate and if one of them is rent, they’re going to be booted pretty fast,” she said.
Building Skills and Stability
With help from volunteers and community partners, True Light offers several classes to build skills including computer literacy, financial literacy, sewing, meal preparation, and jewelry-making, among others. They also offer spiritual studies which have proven to be popular, as faith is an important part of the lives that they are trying to return to. Because many of the people they serve lack a computer or even access to one, True Light offers a computer center and, with support from the Kansas City Public Library, assists with setting up e-mail accounts and teaching skills such as how to search for jobs online. Anderson helps teach financial education, including budgeting, money management basics, and helping people set up bank accounts with support from Arvis Bank. According to Anderson, skill-building classes offer not only success but motivation to continue growing and trying new things. People who complete the sewing class, for example, may create something from scratch using a skill they’ve never explored before, which can have a profound impact. “I think we all learn early on that if we’re successful at one thing, that we’re more likely to try something else,” she said.
Support True Light’s Mission
Besides providing skill-building support, True Light is also looking for individuals who can donate their time to sort clothing for the clothing closet, act as personal shoppers for people in need of specific clothes, sort hygiene and household items that arrive in bulk, package hygiene items for easy distribution, make lunches, and assist the staff with administrative tasks and data entry. True Light also offers internships for social work students, often at the master’s level, who can use the skills they build in their future careers. High school students are also welcome to volunteer as well as student groups from late elementary school through high school who are supervised by a teacher. Other ways to support True Light include:
- Becoming a volunteer.
- Donating items on their wish list, including casual summer clothing for men and women; work clothing and shoes such as nice white shirts, black and khaki pants, and black shoes; men’s athletic shoes; women’s underwear (new); ready-to-eat, healthy, and nonperishable food including pop-top sausages, pop-top tuna with crackers, and fruit cups.
- Contributing to the power of word-of-mouth marketing by sharing their work and resources with others, especially people in need of their services and support.
- Donating financially to help provide clothing, food, and other necessities.
“If we have more, we’re going to be able to help more people,” said Piggee-Wallack.
