Our ability to provide our voice mail service to homeless and low income people who do not have reliable telephone service is at risk. Imagine for a moment you are filling out a job application. You’ve reached the line where the application asks for a phone number. You don’t have a telephone because you are homeless and staying at a shelter. How can the potential employer offer you a job when he can’t even call you? Without a job, you can’t earn money to afford a place to live. You ask yourself, “How am I ever going to get back on my feet again?”
This life-sustaining tool helps people get on their feet. People who do not have a phone have been faced with difficult choices in their lives because their incomes are so low. They must choose among food, housing, clothing and a phone. The phone is always the first to go, yet it is an essential tool to help people out of their unemployment, their homelessness, their abusive situation. We are the only community voice mail program in Minnesota, and because of our active outreach and partnerships with agencies, we are the largest provider of free voice mail to low income people in the United States.
The demand for our services has grown while our funding has decreased. We run a lean organization, support 350 partner agencies across the state, and connect 4600 Minnesotans every year. If we close, there is no substitute.
Please help us in any way that you can to keep this essential service available to people in need.
You can donate to Open Access directly by going to our website www.openaccessconnections.org.
You can connect us with possible funders who would be able to generate funds quickly.
You can write a letter of support for us to distribute publicly outlining the importance of our services.
- You can connect us with key decision makers who might have the ability to provide us with funding.
