Help Our Ladder Project Families

Help Our Ladder Project Families as We Usher in the New Year

Patrice and sons, Chase and Caeden

Our Ladder Project families have faced unprecedented challenges in this time of COVID, and while our Shearith Israel family has helped them emotionally and financially throughout, they are at a critical juncture. In order to establish housing security for their children, these single moms must have jobs. We are looking for three things from our congregants right now: two jobs and one laptop.

"We need two jobs and one laptop."

This is the challenge: If our nearly 1,000-member congregation cannot help find employment for two smart, motivated women, how can the community at large ever hope to significantly reduce homelessness in Dallas?

Patrice Bryson
Patrice lost her $17/hour clerk's job at the Frank Crowley Criminal Courthouse in March when DISD shut down and her two 9-year-old sons could no longer go to school. She has been home caring for her boys since then, including home-schooling so they don't fall behind in their academics (which suffered when school went virtual last spring). Ladder Project Executive Committee member Mindy Fagin has taken the family on several outings during COVID—including an animal preserve, an ice cream store, and Mindy's backyard pool—all while practicing safe distancing.

Patrice, 42, had been receiving a monthly rent subsidy from the Shared Housing Center, where she and the boys lived while homeless, but that ended July 31. The Ladder Project had fully furnished her apartment pre-COVID and has intermittently helped with phone, internet, and food bills. But by August, Patrice was unable to pay her rent. Last week, in order to prevent Patrice from being evicted, the Executive Committee struck an arrangement with Patrice's landlord to pay the $1,150 monthly rent going forward until the boys can be cared for during the day and Patrice can resume working, on the condition that the landlord forgive the August rent. Which the landlord agreed to do.

Now we need to help Patrice find work.
In the short term, until the boys have a place to go during the day, we are looking for hourly remote work. (We are also looking for a gently used or new laptop donation—Patrice's tablet cannot download Microsoft or other office products.)

Patrice completed 86 credits at Central Michigan University and is handy with a computer—she entered criminal cases into the Dallas County Clerk's computer system—and she has excellent phone and customer service skills. She boasts a wonderful, engaging personality. Any remote work you can give Patrice, no matter how small or short-lived, would be a mitzvah and her only income at the moment.

If you have an in-person, part-time or full-time receptionist or administrative job available for Patrice please let us know that too. The Boys and Girls Club near Patrice's apartment will soon allow students to work remotely at its facility, and perhaps other child care arrangements can be found.

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Petrina and daughter, Jacelyn

Petrina Johnson
Petrina is another single mom we are helping. She lost her $15/hour job doing intake for Dallas Housing Authority clients when COVID shut down the agency in March. Petrina's daughter Jacelyn is 13 years old and can stay at home by herself during the day, so Petrina has more work flexibility. She is looking for a full-time job—remote or in-person—and would ideally like to find a job in the non-profit sector so she can help people.

Petrina, also 42, has a BA from Georgia State University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. She is an excellent writer, having worked at a Houston area newspaper as a reporter for several years. Unlike Patrice, Petrina owns a car. Petrina's monthly apartment rent was subsidized by the Shared Housing Center until recently; the Ladder Project fully furnished her apartment and paid off two revolving expenses in order to free her from debt. But Petrina receives only $688/month in child support and disability payments from her daughter's father, and if she does not find work soon, she too could be facing eviction.

There is no greater mitzvah as we start the Jewish New Year in the middle of a pandemic than helping these two single mothers keep a roof over the heads of their children. They want to work, which is a requirement of our program. Please let us know if you can help by contacting Executive Committee Chair Laura Miller at laura.miller1@sbcglobal.net

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David Corn

David Corn's Success Story
In case you question whether our efforts actually change lives, we'll end on a positive note by bringing you news about our first Ladder Project participant David Corn, who we recruited two years ago from the city's downtown homeless shelter The Bridge.

David was furloughed in March, due to the virus, from his $12/hour job at Studio Movie Grill, where congregant Joe Harberg had originally found him a job. With the help of the Ladder Project Executive Committee, David applied for unemployment in April and also worked briefly for $12/hour at Tom Thumb Preston Forest. The extra $600-per-week in unemployment benefits provided by the federal government in response to COVID kept David afloat for several months. In August, with $26 left in his bank account and a September deadline to renew his apartment lease, David had applied to Costco, his dream employer, but he began to worry that the job applications he had submitted via his phone, had not gone through. He made copies of his resume and spent a day on DART buses and light rail traveling to three of Costco's stores in Dallas and Plano. At the last store, on Churchill Way and Coit, a manager told David he was impressed with his assertiveness and introduced him to his management team. David started at the Churchill Way store on August 6—at $15/hour, which is a significant increase for him.

This past week, in a phone call on one of his days off work, David teared up on the phone when talking about his two years in our program, the lifelong friends he has made at Shearith Israel, and the progress he's made professionally since he first met us. "At Costco, no one knew the manager, or had a special friend who agreed to talk to me about a job. I do feel good that I went to get this job. I did. I went and got that job."

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Thank You
The Ladder Project and Shearith Israel are extremely grateful to everyone for their previous in-kind and cash donations, which continue to help our Ladder Project recipients.  Please email Laura at laura.miller1@sbcglobal.net with any job leads for Patrice and Petrina or if you have a laptop to donate.

L'shana tova tikateyvu

The Ladder Project Executive Committee
Melinda Fagin
Jeff Hoppenstein
Larry Krasner
Marsha Lev
Laura Miller
Nonie Schwartz
Andrea Solka
Sally Wolfish