Moving to Mankato from Illinois in June as a single mother, I found myself in a tough position with nowhere to go. I had a friend call the shelter to see if there was any opening and there was. At that time, I had 4 of my children staying with relatives and one came to shelter with me. After the intake process I realized I was able to adapt to this kind of living style because I grew up in a household around strangers. Right away at my first meeting with the shelter manager, she helped me identified my barriers – one of them was finding a job in Mankato.
I got a job driving a bus, something that I had been used to in my previous job. Little did I know that I had to take all my transportation licenses over again, as my Illinois commercial license did not transfer over state lines. That was a huge surprise to me and set me back right away. I powered through studying day in and day out, and got all my needed certificates, to be able to stay working in the transportation industry in Minnesota.
After I got my feet on the ground I decided to face my housing barrier, I started looking for housing, I jumped through many hoops talking to people trying to find affordable housing. After I established a budget, after making calls I found place that was appealing for my budget, myself and my 5 children. We then moved in near the end of my 90 stay at the shelter. Since then, some of my biggest achievements include staying with a job for a long period of time, getting further certified to open new job opportunities for me with higher pay.
I’m a mother to 5 kids that are ages: 18, 17, 14, 12 and 9. All five kids are thriving well and adjusting to living under the same roof.
My biggest goal in life is to get off all assistance. I want to be on my own and support myself and my kids.
My 18-year-old has applied for college to take up business management and my other 4 kids are doing extremely well in school, working hard, involved with sports and staying busy challenging themselves the best way they can.
From this point forward, my biggest goal in life is to get off all assistance. I want to be on my own and support myself and my kids. If I had one thing to say to [Partners for Housing], I would say that I really appreciate you and the things you have done for me. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be where I am today.
You understood the emotional barrier and stress that came with being homeless. Thank you for accepting me for who I am and seeing the best in me. You saw strengths in me that I didn’t see. It was hard every single day, and I always wanted to give up, but the staff at Partners never let me. You saw my traits for success and gave me the resources to achieve success. All I can say is thank you!