Each year, we held a “Trivia” Night at a church outside of the neighborhoods, but supportive of MIDTOWN. Trivia Nights are contests to see who knows the most useless information. Our Trivia Night was called “I Knew That” and each year had over 300 guests in attendance. To help donors, volunteers and supporters be comfortable coming to our building in the inner city, a local gourmet Italian restaurant prepared a Holiday Pasta Dinner. Guests were treated to some of the best Italian food in St. Louis. The dinner was part of an Open House where staff visited with guests about our work and asked guests to make a donation to our programs. Individuals and businesses made donations throughout the year. These were usually unsolicited but sometimes came after visits and/or presentations at local churches or at public organizations. Lastly, we received some monies from CC and the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
This multiple stream of funding helped us through economic highs and lows. Usually during economic lows, donors continued to provide support although a little less than their usual. During the Great Recession, our donors provided enough support; we did not have to make any drastic changes. We continued to search for new sources of funding for our programs as our budget and programming grew. Our budget started at $35,000 in 1990 and when I left in 2016 was nearly a million dollars.
The money which came from Catholic Charities (CC), Catholic Community Services (CCS) and the Archdiocese of St. Louis was always the least of our sources of support. The way in which this support was determined made budgeting difficult. Catholic Charities and Catholic Community Services waited until we had created our budget with all other sources of income. If we had a deficit, this difference would be made up by our parent organization. We never knew how much we would receive until this point. The other outreach sites received the majority of their funding from CCS and the Archdiocese. I did not consider this to be fair as most of our budget came from money we raised outside of the church. However, I determined early on, if we wanted to have the kind of programs and services our neighbors both needed and wanted, we would have to find the money to provide them.
We were usually on budget with income and expenses. Sometimes there were short falls—usually because our parent organization and CC controlled where we could seek funding. When we were free to find funding wherever we could, we had budget surpluses. During a three-year period in the late 2000’s, we had a budget surplus of more than $100,000 one year, $15,000 another and in the third year took on a program and its costs from another outreach site at the request of CC. We were over budget about $15,000 that year, including the costs of the transferred program. In the last five years I was at MIDTOWN we were over budget 3 years. During that time, I was no longer allowed to prepare the budget. The way the budget was determined was changed so income and expenses were hard to track. Because there was a disastrous deficit at Catholic Community Services all five of those years, manipulation of funds by the organization made it difficult to know what was real about income and spending.
MANAGEMENT STYLE
My approach to staff and decision-making had a goal of participatory management. However, I found it difficult to get all our staff on board. Some of the decisions could require staff to do more or different work in addition to what they were already doing. I tried to be open, honest, accountable and friendly. My desk was in our first-floor office, in the back corner of our open setting. It was designed so anyone could stop and talk. Board members, volunteers and neighbors enjoyed my availability. In this open style room, with no cubicles, our neighbors felt more comfortable. I was able to communicate with the staff at any time—helping with ideas, saying thank you for their work and commenting on the success of the St. Louis Cardinalsbaseball team.
We had regular meetings where staff discussed what they were doing, any help they needed and their availability to help other staff with agency-wide activities. Whenever we had a new idea, we discussed it at staff meeting getting input from anyone interested in sharing their thoughts. Sometimes, we would delay things to think about them further. Other times there was near consensus on an idea or program and we began to address it. I tried to be encouraging at staff meeting about the people we served. I reminded staff that people living in poverty always had it harder than we sometimes felt we did.
Staff was paid $26-$30,000 (2005-16) depending on their degree and experience. It was important our salaries were not so far above those we served that we might forget their struggle. I started at $18,000 in 1990 with ten years’ experience and a Master’s Degree in Social Work. I told staff; I made more money than they did because I had been around longer. Staff usually received a raise—from 1-3% as determined for all employees of the Archdiocese. I would use the money available for raises and distribute it based on merit, educational advancement, or because of a special request from a staff person—marriage, newborn or other need. All staff received some form of raise whenever it was available. At the end of my time, with the huge deficits accrued by CCS, there were three years during which no one received a raise.
If a staff person remained for more than 3 years their salary might reach the mid $30’s. If staff took on a new category of job, or management responsibility, their salary would increase because of this. Today, I would not pay anyone less than $15 per hour (a salary of $32.000 per year). This wage is a good starting place for a single adult and would be an example to those we served of a fair pay scale. (Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese did control salaries and benefits for all employees).
Staff committed from 2 to 10 years. Two staff members returned after trying other agencies and stayed for several more years. For many of our staff, this was their first professional job. They would work for two years; learn everything they would need to make more money and move on. I taught social workers, fundraisers, managers and religious. I understood notall staff could continue to live on the wages we paid.
When staff married things changed. A new baby would create a need for more resources. Sometimes even buying a new car was hard. But I told everyone who ever worked at Midtown, there is not enough money in the world to make our job easier and if you love the work and the people, the amount of money probably doesn’t matter. I also felt all of our jobs were equally important, only with different responsibilities. My job was no more (maybe less) important than a group worker leading an after- school group of 5th graders. I reminded staff of this whenever it seemed necessary.
As Director, people coming to the agency expected me to be in a private office. They thought they would need an appointment to see me, and that the work I did was all administrative. A new pastor from the church came to see me one day in late December. The receptionist told him I was helping deliver Christmas presents to families in the neighborhoods. He was very surprised I was doing this and not in the office managing the staff doing the work.
I felt it was my job to help our staff do their job. I needed to know the people from the community, their children and their needs. I did home visits, ran programs, led activities and when Joyce was pregnant with our daughter, I went back to doing group work with children and teens. I enjoyed our programs and services and was always happy to work with our neighbors because the people were why we did the work.
Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.
Norman Vincent Peale
OUR NEIGHBORS
The people who came to MIDTOWN lived in severe poverty. 88% of the families lived with incomes under $12,000 a year; less than 50% of the federal guidelines for poverty (2019) which place a family of four at $25,100. This group of Americans in poverty is growing the fastest. All of the families we served had incomes below the poverty level. 98% of the households were African American3.
Most heads of household were women, mothers or grandmothers, but we noticed a trend in more fathers taking care of their children alone. The average family included three people, usually a mother and two children. We also served single seniors and families up to 14 members. Often homelessness was reflected as multiple families living together in one home. Lack of affordable housing, high rates of unemployment, failing schools and poor policing created instability in our neighborhoods.
People often think of the poor as transient—homeless for a while, finding an apartment, getting behind in rent and moving out. Our neighbors