Celebrating the Freedom Identification Brings!

Dear Friends of IDignity,

What do you picture when you imagine the American dream?

Is it a home with a white picket fence? Is it a corner office with a view? Or are these things merely conventional representations of the American dream?

For me, a former IDignity client, simply standing on my own two feet again became my American dream after I experienced life without proper identification. Recently, I sat down with Chris Holaway, a fellow former client, and we talked about how the inability to prove our identities shaped our wants and needs.

Chris spent eight years serving our country in the U.S. Army. Afterward, he worked as a gravedigger, where he severely injured his back. To cope with the pain, Chris was prescribed highly addictive painkillers. And when his medicine became difficult to obtain, he turned to heroin. Within a year, Christopher was homeless on the streets of Orlando, consumed by his addiction. Somewhere in all of that, Chris lost his identification documents, making it nearly impossible to turn his life around.

“You feel hopeless,” said Chris. “You have no documentation, so nobody wants you. You can’t go to detox. You can’t go to a treatment facility. You can’t even get a hotel room if you want to get cleaned up for the night.”

But then he met Sherri Claudio, an outreach specialist with the Veterans Administration, and was quickly connected to IDignity through its partnership with the VA.

“Right away, I started to see that pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel,” said Chris.

Before long, he was at an IDignity event reclaiming legal proof of his identity and, thereby, his life. After obtaining his identification, Chris was able to rejoin society and is now 27 months sober. He has a great job, an apartment, and a golf swing that’s getting better every week.

“I’m very content,” said Chris, gesturing to the modest yet cozy studio apartment he has rented for the last two years. “I don’t need more than this. I’m not seeking wealth, or fame, or anything like that. I’m extremely happy with the lot that God gave me.”

The American dream we all hope for is entirely too diverse to relegate to a home or some land. In its purest form, it is the freedom to pursue the life we desire. Thankfully for the Orlando community, IDignity specializes in providing access to the tangible things that make previously intangible dreams possible. Or, as Chris puts it, “The difference that IDignity makes is that they put people back in a position to have everything they need and everything they want.”

You can contribute directly to fulfilling someone else’s American dream by providing a gift to IDignity. For every $300 raised, IDignity can make that dream a reality for one person, ultimately making our community a more inclusive place for us all.

I am honored to join you in celebrating our independence and the individuals like Chris who serve our country to protect this freedom.

Sincerely,

Rahsaan Graham
Writer and Former IDignity Client

Your donation can make someone’s dream a reality

2021 Board of Directors updates

2021-05

IDignity is proud to welcome new board member, Gabriel Sidere.

2021-03

IDignity is proud to welcome new board member, Rick Pullum.

Rick Pullum is a fourth-generation Central Florida native with a 20-year track record in the commercial banking industry in Central Florida. He currently serves as President of One Florida Bank. He received his BS in Real Estate and his Master of Business Administration from Florida State University. He has also served as an elder of First Presbyterian Church of Orlando (one of IDignity’s founding churches). Rick resides in Orlando with his wife Jessica and their three children. IDignity is happy to have Rick’s expertise in the area of finance and his knowledge from having worked on numerous capital campaigns in the community.

And IDignity recently said goodbye to someone who has served on the board for a decade.

Nick Degel joined the IDignity board in 2011 and served faithfully as IDignity’s treasurer until his term expired in March 2021. During Nick’s time of service on the IDignity board, he transformed our bookkeeping processes and procedures, and provided an invaluable service to our organization. Nick also volunteered at IDignity’s identification clinics from 2009 – 2020 serving at more than 76 monthly events, giving hundreds of hours of volunteer service. We are so very grateful for Nick’s commitment to IDignity’s mission and his willingness to promote the IDignity story to his friends and family. We wish you all the best Nick!

2021-02

IDignity is happy to welcome new board member, Michele Moss. Read below to learn more about this amazing addition to our board of directors.

Michele Moss is a Founding Partner and Managing Member at Johnson Moss L.L.C. She is a litigation attorney with a focus on intellectual property and computer and internet law. Michele’s focus is on helping business owners and entrepreneurs control, protect and profit from what they have worked hard to build and create. Her specialties include Copyright, Trademark, and Trade dress infringement, Civil liability for online content, cyberlaw, and digital rights management. Michele will be a great asset to our board of directors.

IDignity also recently said goodbye to several long-time board members. Read about each person and their history with IDignity’s mission below.

Anton Gammons served on the IDignity board from January 2011 – December 2020. Anton was the resource chair from November 2017 – December 2021 helping IDignity locate new board members, interview them, and guide them through the onboarding process. Anton also served on the fundraising committee helping with various events over the years.

Jean Hartsaw was elected to IDignity’s board of directors in October of 2104 and served until December 2020. During her time on the board, Jean assisted in fundraising and served on the resource committee. She was also the co-chair of the Seeds of Hope spring fundraiser from 2016 – 2019.

Brad Sefter was elected to the board in December of 2009 and faithfully served three-three year terms. Brad was the first IDignity client elected to the board. During Brad’s time of service, he was the chair of the program committee, sharing a client story with the board each month. Brad has also helped with numerous fundraisers and was our featured speaker at the 2018 Souper Douper fundraiser.

A long time coming | Celebrating Willie finally getting his ID!

Willie came to his first IDignity event in December of 2009 at the youthful age of 66. He was there to sort out mismatched names on his birth certificate and his Social Security card (an issue that became much more important with Florida’s adoption of the REAL ID Act in January of 2010). IDignity’s legal team and volunteers went straight to work but Willie’s case would prove difficult to resolve for several reasons.

For one thing, his age made it hard to track down the usual documents IDignity would start by acquiring. For example, his school records were so old that the school he attended no longer kept them on file. So IDignity’s legal team had to be more resourceful than expected, even learning a few new techniques in the process.

Willie’s case was complicated further by the fact that he lived in the woods, was battling addiction, and living with mental health issues – obstacles that are very common for people experiencing homelessness because of their lack of access to healthcare. Attorneys and volunteers often communicated with Willie through his loving daughter who said that she often would go months at a time without knowing where or how Willie was.

Willie and his daughter

But after years of correspondence through his daughter, after countless hours of sleuthing and research by IDignity’s attorneys and dedicated volunteers, and through collaboration with the Orange County Tax Collector’s Office, IDignity was able to close Willie’s case file when he finally obtained his Florida ID on March 4, 2020.

Though 2020 was a difficult year, it was also filled with many triumphs. From overcoming Willie’s very complicated identification issues, to opening Jackie’s Place so that many more like Willie can receive identification services safely, to the volunteers and donors that made it all possible, we have so much to celebrate. And, so much to look forward to in 2021.

A Simple Solution | How Johnnie’s identification problems came to a quick end

Simplicity seems to be hard to find these days. For so many, 2020 has been a year full of nothing but complications. If you can remember it, there was a time before COVID, when things seemed to go just a little bit more smoothly. Johnnie was one of 2020’s last IDignity clients who experienced the process the way it was originally designed to be – simple.

Back in January, before 2020 really became the year we all know it as, Johnnie went to the Orange County Tax Collector to try to replace an ID that was stolen from him when his car was broken into five and a half years ago.

On this Thursday in January, Johnnie says, “the good Lord told me to get up this morning” and that’s what he did. When he was told he didn’t have what was needed to obtain an ID, someone at the Tax Collector’s Office told him about IDignity, and as fate or luck or divinity (whichever you believe in) would have it, IDignity was hosting one of its last Identification Clinics of the year several blocks away at The Salvation Army.

When he got to The Salvation Army, Johnnie was greeted with “a smile and a handshake,” something he found meaningful because as Johnnie said, “You don’t get that everywhere.”

That day, IDignity was able to get him his Florida Birth Certificate, a new ID, and help him fill out his application for a new Social Security card all in the same day. Identification doesn’t get any more simple than that.

Though IDignity’s services have become a little more complex this year, our amazing volunteers and staff still do everything possible to make the process easy for our clients. Our new Identification Service Days still help individuals overcome the barrier of identification – something that can be as frustrating and stressful as any given day in 2020. No matter the hard work it takes to get someone their ID, IDignity will be there to help. It’s that simple.

Click here to help make the solution to someone’s identification problems simple!

Getting Back to Work – How Cory’s ID got him off the streets and back on the job

Cory works in the construction industry. The company he works for pays for him to stay in hotels wherever they travel for a job, so he does not own or rent his own place.

Six weeks ago, Cory was robbed. Cory walked away from that incident with a nasty cut on his hand, and the attacker got away with Cory’s wallet. In that wallet was Cory’s driver’s license and Social Security card.

The cut on Cory’s hand has prevented him from being able to work until the wound heals. Because he can’t work, Cory has been homeless since the day he sustained that injury.

Surviving on the streets, especially without an ID, is no easy task. Thankfully, Cory came across one of IDignity’s new Identification Service Days while walking around Downtown Orlando. As luck would have it, he approached IDignity volunteers at the perfect time to fill an appointment slot that had been set aside for a client who was unable to make their appointment.

That day, IDignity verified Cory’s Gold Star status – confirming he has had a REALID before – and sent him to the Tax Collector’s office to obtain a replacement ID card at no cost to Cory. The very next day, he connected a friend in need of identification with IDignity’s services.

Cory is very excited to get back to work as soon as his hand heals. Coincidentally, IDignity is also ecstatic to be back to work, serving people like Cory who need their identification to get their lives back on track.

Click here to give the gift of self-sufficiency to someone like Cory

How an IDignity board member saved a client’s life

Christopher Holaway shared his story with IDignity back in 2019. Click here to watch his video. Now, 2020 has brought a new chapter to his journey with IDignity.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Amway Center, like many businesses, was forced to lay off employees. Christopher was one of them.

Soon after, AdventHealth began using the Amway Center as a medical supply distribution center. This operation was staffed by hard workers who were recommended to AdventHealth by the Amway Center. Christopher stood out as a great candidate and was hired by AdventHealth to help receive and ship these important supplies.

Christopher began working alongside Danny Myers, IDignity board member and AdventHealth Central Florida’s SVP and Senior Finance Officer. Danny recognized Christopher from his IDignity video, and they quickly becoming friends through their mutual love for IDignity and intertwined job roles.

One day, shortly after Christopher arrived at work, he began experiencing chest pain. Danny quickly called an ambulance. When the EMTs checked Christopher’s blood pressure, it was, as he puts it, “off the charts.” So, Christopher decided he would simply go home and rest it off.

Before Christopher headed home, Danny wanted to pray over Christopher to offer him peace and calm as he endured the extreme discomfort. Danny put his hands on Christopher and said a prayer. Christopher said, “After Danny prayed over me, I immediately knew I had to get in that ambulance and go to the hospital.”

He was rushed to the nearest hospital, ORMC, and the medical professionals there determined Christopher was experiencing a severe heart attack. Within three hours he was admitted and a stent was inserted into his heart.

Christopher spent a night in the hospital to recover. The next day, IDignity’s Director of Philanthropy Anne Taylor drove him home, but not before making a stop at the Amway Center to thank Danny for helping save Christopher’s life.

Christopher said, “I love Danny for what he did for me. I will always remember him and be humbled by how God took an active interest in my life and brought me through a time when he could have brought me home.”

IDignity’s Origin Story

Written by volunteer, Bill Fay

In the beginning, obtaining an ID didn’t take much more than $3 and a smile for the camera.

It was so easy – and so cheap! – that the St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. James Catholic Cathedral could handle the two or three people every week who needed the service. We’d walk them to the courthouse, watch while they gave the clerk their (alleged) name and (alleged) address, smiled at the camera and POOF! They had an ID.

We smiled too. For $6 or $9 a week, we provided a valuable service. Sometimes we didn’t even send a volunteer. We just handed people a check for $3, told them where to go and off they went. The whole process might have taken 15 minutes, if you count the two-block walk to the courthouse, if we did bother walking to the courthouse.

Those really were the days.

We did that for years, but then the math changed. The cost jumped to $10 a head and there were a lot more heads. Nobody could afford it anymore, including us. Two or three became 15 or 20. We had to change the day to Wednesday just so we could accommodate the numbers.

One Wednesday, a van pulled into the church parking lot, unloaded 12 men, circled back 25 minutes later and emptied another 13 men on us. That pushed the crowd that day to more than 40 and the math no longer worked. We stopped giving out IDs a week later.

In retrospect, the day the van arrived was the actual conception day for IDignity.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society realized we didn’t have the money or the manpower to handle what was coming, so we did what all churches do: We prayed for help. Actually, if you ask the other downtown churches, it was more like: We preyed (on them) for help.

We asked every downtown church to give us $100 a week to handle the problem. We invited them to a meeting to discuss the poorly thought out idea. Some showed. They listened for two hours while we gave them a heavy dose of Catholic conscience about our obligations to the poor and coughing up some cash. Finally, the leader from the host church stood up, declared this a non-winner for his church, thanked St. Vincent de Paul for what they were doing and called it a night.

Fortunately, there were some people in the room with a conscience. They stayed over and decided to meet again – at a different church – and put some more thought into the matter. A few meetings later, momentum was building and an overly-enthusiastic member of First United Methodist Church of Orlando jumped up and said he had a name for this movement.

“I think we should call it IDignity, as in ID, and restoring people’s dignity,” Michael Dippy said. The room applauded and just like that, the movement had a name, a purpose, and a leader!

And God saw that it was good and, behold, it has become very good!