San Francisco startup offers homeless free voice mail

[951-Riverside]

SAN FRANCISCO - A project offering free voice mail to the homeless and poor to help them find jobs and stay in touch with family signed up 228 members during its launch.

Project CARE started Thursday will be available in shelters around the city in the coming weeks.

"It was a fairly easy service to offer since we already have built a high-end voice mail system for paying customers," said Craig Walker, chief executive of GrandCentral Communications. "So we thought, 'Hey, let's do some good with this.'"

The startup company's paid voice mail product is scheduled to launch this summer, but access will remain free for homeless clients.

Homeless advocates say the system will help alleviate the stress of not being able to get messages from family members, potential employers or social workers.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/14345456.htm

[NorCalDem]

1. Be careful

if people in the Bay area get too many freedoms, the terrorists just might "ate us for them" enough to make O'Leilly's wish to come true :D

[Dunvegan]

2. I used to work for Grand Central Communications...

...I'm not surprised Halsey Minor is offering this service.

It's pretty wonderful. I have a friend who is staying with me...her grand-daughter is out of work, with no savings and running out of "friendly couches" where she can flop. The grand-daughter last week got one of the cards, and she's using it to set up job interviews now.

Up with San Francisco!

[truthisfreedom]

3. so many pay phones have been removed in Minneapolis, i think the homeless

would find it difficult to check their voicemail boxes!

"hey buddy, can i borrow your cell phone?"