SSG Lavaux came to Community Lifeline Center for help recently. He’s agreed to sharing his story as a means of helping other veterans in need,  and as a thank you to those who serve them. 

SSG Lavaux recently concluded a 20-year career in the US Army Reserve. All those years of military service gave him a vast array of skills, but didn’t prepare him for the unexpected turns civilian life can take. An unexpected job loss forced him to look for help and support. 

The good news?

He found Community Lifeline Center and the services made available through a grant from Texas Veterans Commission. These funds provided immediate support for SSG Lavaux in areas where he most needed the help. Indeed, his situation mirrors that of so many veterans who come to Community Lifeline Center seeking help. The help they most often need and get.

Nearly half of the financial support given to these veterans is in housing assistance, followed by medical, dental, utilities, counseling, legal, and transportation. Does this sound like a lot for veterans to ask for:  a roof over their head, decent dental care, lights and heat and mobility? A few necessities while they try to get their civilian lives in order.

Community Lifeline Center is proud to be of service, and humbled by the Texas Veterans Commission grant that enables that mission. But, CLC is just a part of a team of providers assisting veterans like SSG Lavaux. His story illustrates how vital collaboration and partnerships among service organizations are.  

The really good news?

As of this writing SSG Lavaux has been hired by the Texas Veterans Commission to serve as employment representative at the Workforce in Weatherford.

Your support of Community Lifeline Center helps create happy endings for a lot of difficult life stories. When we put a face on crisis, we realize how familiar it can look.

Quick: picture a veteran and what comes to mind? A strapping, square-jawed combat ready Marine? A female naval officer in her starched summer white uniform? Or, perhaps a wheelchair-bound 80 year old with a Pearl Harbor baseball cap? 

Veterans come in all sizes, shapes, genders, and ages; and, a great many come to Community Lifeline Center looking for help. Like the female veteran with two children under the age of two, requesting food; an older man with no front teeth asking for dental help; a young man whose wife just left him asking for advice on which way to turn. Veterans whose perfect service records provide no guarantee they will succeed in civilian life or protection if they don’t. 

But, they do have a couple of things in common: they’re all veterans and they all heard that someone at Community Lifeline Center could help them. Thankfully, they heard right! 

Megan Hickman, MSW

Community Lifeline Center’s Veteran Program extends a wide range of services to veterans, dependents, and surviving spouses in the CLC service area. The program is funded through a grant from the Texas Veterans Commission. According to Megan Hickman, MSW, Veterans Case Manager at CLC, the veterans seen have been from all wars, and all time periods: “Their military experience covers a wide range of time and experience, but what’s most needed from all the Veterans we see are financial aid and employment”. 

After reviewing each need, prioritizing and writing an action plan with each client, Megan is able to commit to financial and educational commitment for the veteran while they share a goal of finding employment through various resources in the community. When asked what the most rewarding part of her job has been, Megan quickly responded: “Allowing someone to focus on overcoming other issues, either mental or physical, by decreasing their financial worries.” 

Interested in helping veterans? 

There are three actions you can take: 1) Donate further funding for our Veterans; 2) Employ veterans or their spouses; 3) Assist in creating awareness of the needs of Veterans and their families.  Need to know more?  Contact us at Community Lifeline Center, 972-542-0020 or at www.communitylifeline.org

Community Lifeline Center was awarded a Texas Veterans Commission grant in 2011 to provide support to veterans, their survivors or dependents. A wide array of financial, legal, medical and dental, and transportation services can be given to veterans in need. While CLC case managers do the heavy lifting of verifying and clarifying needs, the assistance given to our veterans wouldn’t be possible without the professional services provided by Community Lifeline Center partners – local businesses who help veterans with needs that many of us take for granted.

Please meet just a few of them: 

• Legal assistance: Veterans in need of legal help including wills, and powers of attorney, are served by the Law Office of Penny Phillips.
• Chuck’s Auto Repair Shop and North Texas Car Repair provide automotive repair.
• Many of our returning veterans and their spouses have asked for counseling to help them with the issues they meet after returning from war and reuniting with their family.  Allen Counseling Associates and Apex Counseling Services both offer their professional services in counseling
• Medical and dental care will be provided by a number of area professionals including Dossett Dental, Dr. Sam Patel, and Community Dental Care.  Medical needs will be served through partnerships with PrimaCare, Any Lab Now, Envision Imaging of Allen, and McKinney Pharmacy. If a veteran or dependent has a need for vision care Pinnacle Eye Associates is also a partner.

Community Lifeline Center is proud to have Megan Hickman, MSW, as the Case Manager for the Veterans.  In addition to her valued counseling, CLC offers computer training classes, financial classes and parenting classes that the veterans, dependents and surviving spouses use to improve their educational skills. Helping veterans translate their military skills into civilian skills, preparing a resume, and preparing them for employment interviews is an important part of the “Job Seekers” class that CLC hosts.

How can you help?

Share this with a friend or veteran. Take a moment to thank all of our business partners – better yet, do business with them. They provide a crucial service to our veterans and deserve our thanks, and more. Join CLC through a donation, or join as a volunteer.

I met with one who arrived at CLC requesting assistance with her rent and TXU electric bill.  When I sat down with this client, I expected to hear the more familiar short term crisis story, but the minute she opened her mouth it was clear that this wasn’t the “typical” situation. She and her husband are raising a young son; he works full time, and she cares for the special needs child as a stay-at-home mother. She reported that one night her husband heard a noise outside and went out to investigate.  When he got outside, he witnessed a burglar attempting to break into the driver side of his pick-up truck.  It being the family’s only source of transportation, he confronted the thief in an attempt to chase him off, but instead he was stabbed in the process. The police and ambulance service were called. He is expected to recover, but he was still in the hospital when this interview took place. The stabbing isn’t the only issue this family has to face.  While it is the most important, she doesn’t have the luxury to concentrate solely on her husband’s recovery.  She has to figure out how the rent and utility bills will be paid until her husband can return to work.  I listened, and we talked about some things she can do now to make a difference. She was encouraged to begin her job search with Texas Workforce for a part time job position and will cut all her unnecessary expenses.  CLC was able to give her some breathing room by assisting her with a partial payment of her rent and her entire TXU Energy bill. – Delphia Adeogun, Case Manager

One of our favorite sayings around the office is “always better together” and with the partnership of TXU Energy through their Energy Aid Fund we joyfully shout “Always Better Together”  and invite  you  to become a Lifeline Friend.

Help. Hope. Here.
Make a difference today!

Christine Hockin-Boyd
Executive Director

If you know of someone have them telephone or stop by our office. The following items will be needed in order to receive these products:

1. Photo ID
2. TXU Energy billing statement (current)
3. Proof of income
4. Mortgage statement or Rental agreement

Community Lifeline Center exists because a community stands tallest when it kneels to offer a helping hand.

That’s what Community Lifeline Center Case Manager Delphia Adeogun said when asked why she decided to work in the non-profit arena. That and “loving to work with the community” are what drive her to serve individuals and families in crisis. Delphia’s job is to meet with clients during the intake process to determine, first, if they qualify for services. CLC has a rigorous screening process to ensure help and support get to the deserving. Once clients are qualified for assistance, an extensive interview takes place. 

It’s during the interview process that Delphia’s degree in Psychology, and extensive management experience pay dividends, as she works with clients to develop a self sufficiency plan. Care is taken to identify the crisis, and develop alternative solutions. “I attempt to give each client a new perspective,  a different way of looking at a situation. I also provide needed resources and referral information that may be of further assistance for each client,” she notes. 

When asked to describe the people she serves Delphia says that individuals and families of all ages and genders come to CLC, but that very often it is families with young children, and even more often women with small children.  And these families face a variety of issues. “A crisis varies from client to client,” she says, “For one client it may be a reduction in work hours or a job loss, for another an unexpected car repair, an unexpected death in the family requiring the mortgage and utility money to be used for the funeral service. The crisis of a recent job loss can snowball very quickly and before you know it the rent and utilities are due again”.

“I met with a young father of four who arrived at Community Lifeline overwhelmed and confused, not knowing what to do next. His wife had abandoned the family taking along with her half of the household income. He was now faced with all the responsibilities of raising the children which was not what he expected when he got married. He worked full time but had not been on the job that long. He was reliant on his wife’s income as well as her assistance in seeing the children off to school and receiving them at the end of the day. During our interview we were able to develop a self-sufficiency plan which included ways to resolve the school drop-off/pick-up issue and a budgeting plan that cut any unnecessary expense to insure his more needed bills were covered monthly by his new income”.

Community Lifeline Center serves Veterans through a grant from the Texas Veterans Commission. Although Delphia focuses on the traditional, “non-veteran” cases, the issues are more often than not the same: “…a “hiccup” in their lives, a short term crisis. We provide them with education, finance that can be a bridge from point A to point B, as well as prescription assistance. Guiding a client back to self-sufficiency is our goal, it doesn’t always have to be financial, it all depends on the need and the available resource that may best fit each situation”.

Delphia has seen a lot of the world having been born in Belize and raised in California. She moved to Fairview in 2006, by way of Wisconsin. She was a stay at home mom until she joined CLC as a volunteer case worker in 2009, which evolved to a staff position in 2010. While she gives 100% to the clients she counsels, she’s learned to leave that behind at the end of the day because “….I must also be 100% present when at home – raising two daughters requires no less”.

But, what clients and colleagues alike discover in working with Delphia is her focus and genuine concern for those in the midst of crisis. During a time when those in need are most vulnerable and exposed, she is their lifeline: “I try to be a non-judgmental listening ear”, she says.

Delphia Adeogun adds special meaning to the Community Lifeline Center promise of “Help. Hope. Here.”

Due to the success of this year’s Empty Bowls event many more families will benefit from their generosity.

To get involved and support:

• Read here to know more about this valuable ministry
• Register to adopt a family
• Or, financially support and get involved contact Jamie St. Clair

Your support is greatly appreciated!