High 5's for this one!

While at Hope Alive, our resident women address a variety of issues that are at the root of their homelessness. Effective financial management and debt resolution is a major area every woman has to tackle. Hope Alive is blessed with two wonderful volunteers, Dave and Cindy, who have created an effective financial education curriculum to meet their needs. They meet one-on-one with moms each week – meeting with all nine women over a five-week period.

One young mother in particular has made tremendous achievements in this area from identifying her wants and needs, developing and managing a monthly budget, resolving debt, maintaining a positive checking account balance, and even saving money. One outstanding debt was with a local department store for which she was trying for months to develop a payment plan to resolve her $390 debt. Rather than working with her on a payment plan, the store demanded full payment and continued to hassle her with constant calls.

Yesterday morning the department store called again and this mom applied the information she learned from our staff and volunteers Dave and Cindy. She calmly spoke to the employee and requested to speak to her supervisor when they refused one more time to work with her. Along the way she took notes, recorded names and stated what she could and couldn’t do – all from a woman without a high school diploma who is motivated to change! She is accepting full responsibility for her debt, too. Praise the Lord! When our staff emailed Dave and Cindy with the good news, they replied, “you’re right, we would be smacking ‘high 5's’ for this one!”

The resident women we serve are some of the strongest and most courageous women I know with their determination to overcome their barriers to independence and success. What a privilege to walk with them on their journeys to wholeness, self-sufficiency and hope! Until next week …

Sue Oehmig
Founder and Executive Director