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ACROSS THE BOARD
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Above:
Standing (left to right): Valerie Russell-Davis, Charles Barge,
John Bordeaux, William Bibbs, Hon. Gregory Carter, Gary Quirk, Fr.
Darrel Curtis, Hon. James Harvey Seated (left to right): Joyce Conner,
Arnetta Kelley, Larry Hinton-Johnson, Delores Verner, Mozella Williams
The Human Development Corporation of Metropolitan St. Louis
Helping low-income individuals and families to gain skills, knowledge
and motivation to become self-sufficient.
By William Poe
Fighting poverty can be big business. That’s ironic but true, according
to Ruth A. Smith, executive director of the Human Development Corporation
of Metropolitan St. Louis. As head of the non-profit association,
Smith oversees 175 full- and part-time employees and manages an
annual budget of more than $12 million, most of it from the federal
government. And, fittingly, Smith’s background is financial services,
not anti-poverty programming.
“My thing is to serve the people who need to be served and to spend
the federal dollars wisely because I’m a taxpayer, too,” Smith says.
Before taking the helm of HDC seven years ago, Smith served HDC
for many years as an accountant and assistant comptroller. Today,
she likes to joke that HDC program directors tend to cringe whenever
she ventures into their areas.
And venture forth, she does. Smith reports to a 21-person board
of directors—all vitally interested in helping the disenfranchised—and
she carries with her the detailed knowledge that only someone with
30 years of HDC experience can bring to the table.
The soft-spoken and smartly dressed Smith knows HDC programming
backwards and forwards. Programs delivered to clients in the city
of St. Louis and Wellston include:
- Head
Start and Early Head Start—Serving pre-schoolers age 3
to 5, Head Start encompasses a broad range of education,
health, family involvement and social services. Early
Head Start serves low-income pregnant women and children
under age 3.
- Energy
Crisis Intervention—Financial assistance for home utilities.
- HDC
administers the Dollar Help and Dollar More programs for
Ameren UE and Laclede Gas.
- First
Step—Helps youth in areas of job readiness and employment
referrals.
- Women-Infants-Children
(WIC) Food—A supplemental food program designed to aid
pregnant women, postpartum breast feeding mothers and
children who are considered to be at risk for health problems.
- Homeless
Prevention—Individuals and families receive help securing
and maintaining safe and affordable housing.
- Employment
Edge Assistance—An intensive six-day job course to teach
persons how to prepare, look for and obtain employment.
- Life
Skills—Promotes life skills and prevention planning through
workshops and individual counseling.
- Teenage
Development—Education workshops where teens, parents,
professionals and community leaders interact to foster
early pregnancy prevention, personal development, career
planning and self-esteem building.
- Healthy
Living Nutrition—Provides garden seeds and lessons in
canning, nutrition, budgeting, health food preparation
and gardening to promote nutritious eating and healthy
lifestyles.
- Voluntary
Improvement Program (VIP)—Offers adult basic education
and preparation for General Educational Development (GED)
certification.
- Young
Adult Employment Readiness—Designed to create employment
opportunities for young adults aged 18 to 24 by enhancing
job readiness.
- Operation
Springboard—Creates paid work experience opportunities
for youths aged 14 to 17.
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HDC also operates
four gateway service centers, three in the city and one in Wellston,
which provide a range of services and activities for low-income
community members and serve as an access point for services.
Since its inception in 1964, HDC programs have served about one
million individuals, and Smith says the need is more pronounced
than ever.
“In a very real sense, people are coming off welfare rolls and coming
onto ours,” Smith says. “The need is still there. It’s the burden
that’s shifting.”
Programs are monitored by a tripartite board consisting of seven
elected public officials, seven representatives of private organizations
and seven representatives of the poor from designated high-poverty
districts in St. Louis and Wellston. Members serve five-year terms
and must take a year-long break before becoming eligible again for
board membership. The board meets at least monthly.
Most board members belong to a variety of social, philanthropic,
religious, political, professional, and community organizations
and bring to the board resources and knowledge that are put to work
on behalf of HDC clients.
As executive director, Smith must answer to an activist board and
account for a lot of taxpayers’ dollars. By spending money wisely,
Smith says, HDC can best serve the community.
“The money we receive is just enough to put a Band-Aid on the problems,”
she says. “If you spend the money wisely, you can do a lot with
that Band-Aid.”
William V. Poe is principal of Poe Communications, a St. Louis
advertising and marketing communications firm. |
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