NICOLE: My name is Nicole and I’m a part of the WIN Network!

Before I heard about this program, I was four months, four to five months I believe, pregnant and with a two-year-old. I was homeless, and I was just really depressed.

When I first heard about it [WIN Network] I was kind of nervous because I didn’t really want to come in because I was embarrassed about my situation. So, when I first came in I really didn’t want to be there.

Miss Linda, she came and she picked me up and we went out and we just talked about different things, and how I’m not the only one going through it. So, it made me feel a little bit better.

LINDA: Well when I first met Nicole, some of her goals were housing. She really needed a place to stay, a stable place to be for her and her son. Some where she could be, because of her situation living from home to home, and the situation. Another thing she did identify was that she did want to finish her school. So, that was one of her goals, well, two of her goals.

NICOLE: Me and Linda we have a connection; we just have some kind of connection. I can’t explain it. But, she just says I remind her of someone!

And she believed that God put her here for her to help me, and I feel like God put her here to help me because she has been helping me. So, I just feel like she was here for me, just for me. So, I like that.

She had gave me a lot of resources with my living situation. She was calling all these places trying to get me in. And then, this one place she finally called, and I was able to get in.

LINDA:  We did what we had to do. And she is also able to follow through with some of her goals that she set up with me also, like continuing school. So, now she is going back to finish to get her GED. Oh, her high school diploma.  I’m sorry, because, this is a school where she’s at now, that she can do [that].  So, she’s on the road, and I’m just so proud of her.

NICOLE: And she’s been helping me throughout my pregnancy just by giving me resources with different classes, parenting classes.

LINDA:  When I met Nicole, I’m not going to say she was my daughter; she falls in the range of my children, and I just thought, “Wow that could be my daughter looking for some assistance.”

And I was glad to be of assistance to her. But, working together with her, not me telling her what to do or what she had to do. Just working with her, empowering her, because that’s what this program is about, empowerment.

NICOLE: This program means a lot to me. I feel like I wouldn’t be the person that I am today without this program.  Like, I needed them with my living situation, with help with my son, and for my future child. So I feel like if I wanted to be a better parent, I need to do better for myself. And they was helping me to do better for myself.