(U-WIRE) NORMAL, Ill. — Homeless shelters and soup kitchens across the country have… (U-WIRE) NORMAL, Ill. — Homeless shelters and soup kitchens across the country have introduced a new way to help get people back on their feet.

The non-profit organization Community Voice Mail is a service offered in cities such as Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles and Boston.

Started in 1991 in Seattle, the voice mail system gives the homeless a way to be contacted by potential employers, social service agencies and relatives.

This service saves homeless people from having to tell potential employers that they are living on the streets.

Many employers do not want to call a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen, so this featuremay be one of the greatest benefits of the service.

Each person in a homeless shelter is given his or her own voice mailbox through Community Voice Mail, which can be accessed via phones everywhere.

The service comes to homeless shelters at the minute cost of $7 a month and has already been proven helpful to many people formerly living on the streets who have since gained employment with the help of the service. This proves that the best solutions sometimes come in the form of small changes.

Not only does the service initially help those who use it, but it also inspires other homeless people, showing them that with a little help and persistence, they can change their lives.

In effect, this service creates a domino effect.

Instead of simply offering the homeless a temporary solution to a problem — offering them meals — this service shows promise for permanent change.

As the saying goes, “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he can eat for life.”

The service can also be used for homeless people who need to be contacted by a doctor for medical purposes. Today, the service is offered in 37 cities across the country, serving more than 47,000 people.

While the service is mostly offered in larger urban areas, smaller cities should look into offering similar services, especially considering the cheap cost of the service.

But why should the service cost at all?

This seems like a perfect opportunity for the big communication companies to give back to the communities who use their services.

Land-based telephone service companies and mobile phone companies could use the services they offer as a major public relations move, and would also be able to claim their contribution as a tax write-off.

It is a shame that such an easy, inexpensive service is only now being offered so widely. If communication companies could step up and help provide this service to shelters, it would provide an example for other companies to do the same.

This is an editorial from The Daily Vidette, the student newspaper of Illinois State University.