College Church ID and Birth Certificate Program

College Church's ID and birth certificate (Outreach) Program provides one-on-one assistance with obtaining birth certificates and Missouri state identification cards to low-income and homeless individuals in the St. Louis area . These documents are required for individuals and families to access housing, employment, education, health care, and other needed social services. A photo ID is now also required in order to vote in the state of Missouri.

Here is a little information about our program impact in the last year:
-Served 3,705 individuals
-Assisted with 2,636 Missouri State ID cards
-Assisted with 3,111 birth certificates for adults and children

In addition to providing onsite assistance in Midtown each week, we hired a Regional Access Coordinator who has built a network of organizations in St. Louis and across the whole state of Missouri who are committed to providing direct assistance with State IDs and birth certificates. In the past year, our regional access efforts have:
-Trained at least 121 people on how to start an ID and birth certificate clinic
-Engaged at least 68 organizations in the work of ID and birth certificate access
-Implemented a mini grant that funded six organizations across the state of Missouri to start document clinics

We also convene a group of community partners to form the Missouri State ID Access Coalition, which seeks to eliminate the systemic barriers our clients face to getting official identification.