Columns
Blaine's Bulletin: First Step Back Home
Washington,
October 7, 2016
I’m always struck by the extraordinary individuals I meet as I travel throughout Missouri’s 3rd District. From St. Charles to Camdenton and every point in between, it’s the spirit of our people that makes Missouri such a special place to live.
I’m always struck by the extraordinary individuals I meet as I travel throughout Missouri’s 3rd District. From St. Charles to Camdenton and every point in between, it’s the spirit of our people that makes Missouri such a special place to live. Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting First Step Back Home, a faith-based, non-profit charity serving the homeless in St. Charles, Lincoln, and Warren Counties. The organization was founded in 2005 and has been serving the needy on a daily basis each and every day since by providing temporary housing, transportation, counseling, job skills and distributing hot meals provided by local congregations. While I was there, I had the opportunity to sit down with some of the individuals being served by First Step Back Home. We discussed what the organization has done for them to get them prepared for and entered into the workforce and up on their feet. First Step Back Home focuses on helping those truly interested in becoming self-supporting, and it’s really making a positive impact on our communities. To date, the organization has helped more than 5,000 of our fellow citizens in the 3rd District. First Step Back Home is just one of countless organizations throughout our country that strive to empower individuals to lift themselves up. It’s something that my colleagues and I in Congress are focused on as part of our Better Way agenda. For far too long, Americans have been told that if we spend more money on government programs to combat poverty, we can alleviate it. This logic is flawed and has failed taxpayers, as well as those in need. In the Better Way plan’s section on poverty, opportunity, and upward mobility there are five key ideas: reward work, tailor benefits to people’s needs, improve schools and skills, plan and save for the future, and demand results. What I found out when I visited with First Step Back Home is that its philosophy aligns with much of the Better Way’s. First Step Back Home requires individuals to work and sets them up with the necessary tools to make it happen. Along with the Better Way agenda, the House Republican Study Committee, of which I am a member, recently rolled out the America Without Faith Project, to demonstrate the value that faith-based organizations provide to our country and the negative consequences on our society that would occur if they did not exist. Like First Step Back Home, these organizations often fill in gaps in government programs and help people in a smarter, more efficient, and cost-effective way. It isn’t often when the federal government and a private organization have the same vision, but I couldn’t think of a better example than this. By working together and implementing the vision in the Better Way agenda, the America Without Faith project, and using what works from those who know best, we can help those in need and help them lift themselves out of poverty. It is important to learn from organizations like First Step Back Home: if we work together, we can make a real difference across the nation. |