ORLANDO, Fla. – A small ID makes a world of difference.
After discovering an unmet need, five downtown Orlando churches joined forces to assist U.S. citizens without identification, creating the nonprofit organization IDignity.
Today, they are one step closer to opening their first building, which will allow them to assist more people.
U.S Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando, secured $750,000 in federal funding for IDignity’s new Orlando headquarters. The nonprofit broke ground on the project last spring.
[WATCH BELOW: IDignity celebrates milestone with Orlando groundbreaking for new headquarters]
“This headquarters is needed,” Frost said. “It’s going to allow them to expand their operation, serve more people and do it in a dignified way, which is so important. They’ve done so much with the little resources they have for years and years and years.”
IDignity helps people obtain important documents for free, such as Social Security cards and birth certificates, so they can get an ID.
“You can’t really do anything without having a government-certified ID today. You can’t get a job. If you can’t get a job, then you can’t support yourself, then you can’t support your family,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said.
Orange County committed over $2 million to the construction to finally give IDignity a home after 18 years and 36,000 people served.
This new space will allow them to grow their numbers and demand will likely increase even more if changes at the state and federal level happen.
The federal government is considering changes to voting, and state leaders in Tallahassee are advancing several bills to change what ID can be used for elections. This will put more emphases on passports.
“It makes it so not even your driver’s license will be able to be used to register to vote,” Frost said about the potential changes. “We shouldn’t be making it harder to vote, we should be making it easier for Americans to cast their ballot and participate in this democracy.”
As IDs continue to be a topic of conversation, IDignity is setting the stage to help even more people be “seen, known and called by name.”
“We need to maintain the integrity of ID at all costs, but there does need to be an organization like IDignity that will assist those individuals in our community that cannot get over those barriers on their own. That’s why we exist,” said Michael Dippy, executive director of IDignity.
For more information on IDignity, click here.