Barbara S. Arms Post Office Box 824 Belleville, IL 62222 618-719-1154 Email Barbara

15 years of experience as a community organizer

• Organized the Tenderloin community in San Francisco (SF) to obtain funding to open a 24 hour center for homeless mentally ill people and developed a peer counseling program.
• Organized the first employment program for homeless people in SF that was funded by the Private Industry Council.
• Organized homeless people and service providers to obtain city funding (SF) for the expansion of emergency shelters and supportive services for homeless people.
• Organized a public hearing on "Unemployment and Economic Insecurity" which was attended by more than 400 people. The panel included representatives Nancy Pelosi, Ronald V. Dellums, Barbara Lee, and other elected officials from California and the Bay Area. People testifying included homeless people, low wage workers, representatives from the disabled community, various racial and ethnic groups, volunteer workers, unions, churches, etc.
• Initiated the Full Employment Coalition, comprised of over 50 community, union, faith-based, and progressive groups along with elected officials and representatives of city commissions and departments. This coalition lead to the formation of living wage coalitions and the passage of legislation increasing the
• wage of workers under city-held contracts and raising the minimum wage for all San Francisco low-wage workers.
• Organized numerous demonstrations including a "Beggars Banquet,"a response to the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in a hotel on Nob Hill in SF. The "beggars" ate, sang, danced and testified in front of the hotel and the media.
• Coordinated neighborhood safety programs which resulted in personal safety classes for women, designations of safe homes, handing out of hundreds of safety whistles, and distribution of hate-crime literature which informed numerous households of gay and Jewish people.
• Organized the first Gay Pride Event in Belleville, IL, June 21, 2008.
• Founder of Metro East Gays and Straights (MEGS) and created several projects to achive the goal of creating communities in the Metro East (an area west of St. Louis, across the Mississippi River) that welcome and include all people regardless of sexual orientation.
• Created the Justice Trail project which "blazes the economic and gay justice trail from East St. Louis to New Orleans".

15 years of experience as an administrator of non-profits

• Director, Rosalie House, a program for battered women and their children, St. Vincent de Paul Society, San Francisco. Hired, trained, and supervised staff to manage 24-hour emergency shelter for women and children; developed and obtained funding for an off-site transitional housing program and a city-wide employment program.
• Director, Tenderloin Self Help Center, Hospitality House, San Francisco. Created a non-medical counseling program for homeless and mentally ill people. Annual budget $500,000.

Commendation:

• Creating a Community-based Self-Help Model for the Nation-SF Board of Supervisors
• The Flag of the United States of America, "flown for Barbara Arms in recognition of her work to abolish poverty" at the request of the Honorable Nancy Pelosi.

Education:

• B.S. Philosophy; M.A. Psychology-Southern Illinois University