Sharniece and her family celebrate the holidays.

Sharniece and her family celebrate the holidays.

December 7, 2011

Last December, Sharniece and her two young children opened Christmas presents on a park bench at 15th & C Streets under overcast skies.  They were living in a homeless shelter.  The gifts were from a nonprofit.

It was a bittersweet moment in a catastrophic year for Sharniece.  She’d cut ties with the kids’ father when he began making bad choices.  Sharniece and the children shared a house with another family, but then that family lost the lease. The stress of juggling work, no place to live, and child care woes took a toll: Sharniece suffered a meltdown and needed respite in a mental health facility.  When she emerged, her job as a retail manager was gone. 

24 years old.  No job.  No home.  Two kids.  Christmas in a rundown park.  The worst, she remembers, was having to wrap presents that she had been unable to provide herself – and weren’t what her kids hoped for.  

Then she heard about Women’s Empowerment (WE).  Knowing she needed a boost, Sharniece enrolled in what she first considered just a jobs program.  “But,” she says of her WE experience, “it was really about rebuilding my life.  Holistic.”

At Women’s Empowerment, she learned key life skills and how to cope with stress.  Smart and articulate, she rediscovered her talents, her determination, and her voice.

Through WE, Sharniece got a job for Paratransit.  Sharniece and six other WE graduates were hired full-time for a region-wide program WE helped create, Wheels to Work mobile employment vans.

Today Sharniece is happy at work and self-sufficient.  Her family has a home.  Her six-year-old daughter played soccer this fall, and is looking ahead to youth basketball.

“We’re getting a tree!”  Sharniece lights up thinking about Christmas.  The plan for Christmas Eve is to make sweet potato pies with her daughter and her two-year-old son. Family time in the safety of their home.

And on Christmas morning, Sharniece is proud she’s giving her kids presents they’ll love.

When you support Women’s Empowerment, you are giving women and children in need a gift greater than anything under the tree:  a pathway to a new and better life.