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"Life can be very busy for single parents like myself... We have gone from my daughter and myself being separated to us being able to live as a well adjusted family and having permanent housing that we can afford.
I wanted to take a couple minutes to let you know what that means to me. My daughter and I have always been close until the time that we were separated because of relational difficulties between myself and her mother (who has greatly struggled with mental illness and had up days and seasons as well as down.) My daughter and I spent every day together. Unfortunately for me, because of circumstances, not the least having been a stay at home dad for several years, I found myself with no employment history, no rental history, no vehicle, and the only available place for me to live was the Good News Rescue Mission. In those circumstances it was very difficult to have hope of a good outcome for our family. My daughter also had a very hard time with the separation. Although she lived with people that seemed to treat her kindly, she suffered from a fair amount of anxiety and probably some trauma over the separation. I was able to visit her frequently during that time and for the most part she seemed happy when I saw her, I could tell some things were weighing heavily on her heart and mind.
Through it all I remembered making a promise to God on the day she was born that I would raise her in the best way that I could- to honor God and go the way she should. I was also very heartbroken at times, because I love her dearly and I also believe that while a person's kids don't really owe them anything, as a parent, I knew that I owe her the opportunity to feel wanted, belonging, and loved in a caring family.
I did some work on myself learning to create that kind of home where she could grow to have that identity, sense of stability and belonging which she deserves as a child. I still had many economic barriers however, at the time I worked very part time at a call center in Redding. I called that the job I could handle at the time. I didn't feel like I had very many marketable skills and still had many time commitments to classes and visits.
And then I received my answer: Faithworks accepted me into their program after two years... I was over the moon with happiness to get into the program...We had weekly case management meetings where we had to set some realistic goals and attempt to meet them during the week, weekly housing inspections, and weekly classes on parent related topics, ranging from parenting, biblical encouragement and prayer, and practical things like budgeting and meal planning. I also received a lot of assistance through the case management that I might not have known how to access myself- such as applying for assistance with Christmas gifts, back to school clothes as well as connection with a children's advocate that could help my daughter work through her emotional issues as they came up (Kathy is great- my daughter always smiles when I pick her up from school and tell her were going to see Kathy.) Through the program were even able to get me connected with some much needed counselling for myself. In the end Crystal was able to get me a referral for HUD to reduce my housing costs, as well as to advocate for me on a limited basis with some of the places that I applied for housing. Also, and equally important, Crystal was able to encourage me every week to be persistent with submitting and following up on the housing applications I had already turned in. I can say also that the program encouraged me to look a little more deeply into my goals for employment. I am pleased to say that while in the beginning I did mostly unskilled temporary labor jobs I was able to find stable employment that meets my scheduling needs and that I am capable of doing.
None of these things would have been very likely to happen without the stability which came from being able to simply have a safe place to stay. And that's really what I wanted you to know. As great as the services provided by Faithworks were, Redding can be a very difficult city to find yourself in need of housing. In general the cost of living is high, the rents are high, and for a person like myself that has done mostly service related work it is difficult if not impossible to balance the need to make money with the responsibilities that come from being a single parent. Having said that, I want you to know that I recognize the very unusual opportunity that I have been given. Words cannot really express the joy that I feel knowing that my daughter and I have found actual stability for our family..."
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