There is a series of intertwined stories in my circle in Austin, Texas, that began when my husband and I were forced into homelessness in 2002. We stayed at the Salvation Army shelter and then were housed a few weeks by Eldercare at a nice apartment. The Eldercare shelter is funded by private and public sources as is SA. In our contacts with other homeless folks, we received resource information about how to get food, hot meals, medical care, job and lodging leads. We then shared that information with many people we met so that they could benefit by reducing their deprivation.

For several months, we had lost our lodging at Salvation Army and slept in a tent, which is a risk in itself, since camping is against the law in the city limits. However, when a cop would find us, he would just tell us to move on and not ticket us. Then we were able to move back into the Salvation Army shelter, even though sleeping was on floor mats and not beds. We have received so much aid from a myriad of sources--churches, public agencies and private charities, and even a little from my sister, her husband and my husband's brother. We'd frequented the State Employment center for months, searching for employment openings. Toward the end of the year, job leads shared with us there yielded enough money so that we could be housed and buy our own groceries.

The job coach at the Center had befriended us and tried to give us advice on our survival. In two cases, she gave us money out of her own pocket to help us with job search and gasoline to get to work.She also had been willing to pay for steel-toed boots for my husband to work in a shipping dock job. This job coach, Kathy Lansford, also received a national award in recognition of her work with the job seekers at the Re-Employment Center here in Austin.

Through her efforts, she has helped many people regain jobs. She does this by researching, keeping track of, and posting notices of job leads, leading workshops in interview and résumé submission strategies, and booking inspirational presentations to the job club by a variety of speakers. Even though many of these duties are part of her job description, I believe she goes the extra mile by staying late many nights without overtime and donating snack food for the meetings, out of her own pocket.

This devotion to the job clubbers and seekers at this center has been an inspiration to me. Then a better job for my husband opened up out-of-state which included excellent lodging and food. When we received a great deal of money from this year-end lucrative contract, Kathy's example inspired me to send her back the money she'd lent us, plus a hundred dollars--133 "gold" dollar coins. I did this in hopes that this money would then be lent out to others who needed an extra boost of cash to enable them to do a job, just as it had helped us.

Another man who'd been left homeless confided his troubles to me and I poured out all the information I had garnered about local resources so that he wouldn't have to live in his car. Then he got a good job working with the 2002 election. Now, he is back with his girlfriend and planning a wedding. Yet another man we'd met at the center who was long-term unemployed offered us a place to stay at his apartment at a very low cost when we returned to Austin, so that we'd have a base of operations as we sought a permanent place to stay. The man we chose to room with let us move in without paying a deposit or pet security money and was very helpful and welcoming.

Consequently, I am thoroughly convinced of the ripple effect and will continue to "PAY IT FORWARD" and share the concept with all with whom I come in contact.

Sincerely,