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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Free voice mail a boost for needy, homeless

Theola S. Labbe Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Mabel McNair, who was once homeless, is enrolled in a culinary arts class and plans to take advantage of a new program here that will provide a free voice-mail service to low-income individuals and the homeless.

McNair, 49, lives in transitional housing and is midway through a 12-week training program sponsored by D.C. Central Kitchen. Her goal is to land a job by the time she graduates.

Through the program, McNair would have a private number landlords could use to contact her as she searches for a permanent home. When chefs and others visit the class looking for students to hire, McNair wants to have a reliable phone number to give out.

“I know it would benefit me,” McNair said. “There’s a lot of jobs that come through the school.”

Community Voice Mail is a national program making voice-mail boxes available free to low-income and homeless individuals. People who want to enroll are asked to work with a social services case manager who will make the service available as part of a client’s overall plan to find a job or to move out of a shelter or transitional housing. Each client will receive a private phone number connected to a voice-mail box. The number can be used only to check messages.

Darcy Litzenberger, senior program manager for Catholic Community Services, which runs several homeless shelters and transitional housing programs here, said his organization was interested in having the voice-mail boxes.

“Nowadays, things like voice mail and e-mail are not luxuries; they are necessities,” Litzenberger said. Staff members take messages, but the homeless and low-income don’t return every night, Litzenberger said. In addition, enrollment in social services programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid, often requires follow-up, and private voice mail is critical, Litzenberger said.

Community Voice Mail, designed by a Seattle-based nonprofit organization, explains its mission through the motto “turning phone lines into lifelines.” The nonprofit group collects testimonials, including a story from one user in Minnesota who said she got a job simply because she could put a phone number down on an application.

Jennifer Brandon, executive director of Community Voice Mail, said the group began the program more than a decade ago and serves 46,000 people across 37 cities annually. During Hurricane Katrina, Community Voice Mail provided phone numbers to evacuees. Washington will be the 38th city in the program. The group plans to expand to Fort Worth this summer.