Love Columbia program helps get man out of debt, leads to a thriving business

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

In an unassuming building off East Broadway and accross the street from Stephens Lake Park sits U.C. Music, a thriving buisiness which owner Uriah Carter did not think was possible a few years ago.

Carter teaches music lessons full-time, anything from guitar to banjo to piano. But a few years ago, Carter was in a financial hole.

"I had been financially stable before, but you get in that position and you're like I know better than this I can do better than this but you're not, and the only way out is to get some help," Carter said.

Carter reached out to Love Columbia, at the time called Love, Inc., and joined the Extra Mile Program. The program, headed by program manager Kelli Van Doren, is a 16-week financial mentorship.

"When you're weighed down with all that financial burden, debt, and um it's just hard to thrive, like you said, and flourish," Van Doren said.

Inflation across the country is at a 40-year high. Food prices rose over 10% in the past 12 months, putting it at its highest inflation rate since 1979.

Van Doren said Love Columbia receives about 120 calls a week, which is a lot more than it received before inflation started rising.

"When your rent, your food and your gas, which you need to get to work, when they add up to as much as you bring home, how are you going to do the other things that are needed?" Van Doren said.

Right now across Missouri, thousands are dealing with financial hardship. Nearly 773,000 people in Missouri live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2020, over 6,500 people in Missouri were homeless, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

One of those people facing the possibility of homelessness was Daniel. He also reached out to Love Columbia, and when they found out he was a muscian, they connected him to Carter.

"I expected it would just be a conversation, here's how I did it and you can go teach some lessons, but it turned into much more," Van Doren said.

Daniel now teaches at U.C. Music. Carter said Daniel was the catalyst that helped grow the business when it got to be too many students for him to do alone.

"It's a lot like getting out a debt, it's incremental progress, so you just keep doing little things every day until you have a business and things look like they just work magically," Carter said.

Love Columbia can be contacted during business hours at (573) 256-7662.