One of the many program's success stories is Michelle R, a public housing resident that received "First Impressions" training and worked as a volunteer in the Clothing & Connections program. Michelle learned the value of improved interpersonal communication that opened the door for her to re-establish relationships with her children. This in turn encouraged her to find employment to allow her to provide for them. She is working two part-time jobs with plans to find full-time employment. Another success story is Toni W. Toni participated in the TWT and ESPM program then started and ran a successful cosmetology business for several years. When her life took a different turn she came back for help with clothing from C&C, computer skills to make her resume, submit a job application and a refreshers course on interviewing tips from POE and First Impressions training and as a result is receiving training and is hired to be an airline attendant, her dream career at the age of 51. Toni stated, "These programs helped in many ways, besides just the computer skills updating (i.e. emailing) and clothing. It also helped me get the job by encouraging confidence building, helped me with training that required me to see that I may want something, but if I don't have some encouragement to try it, it is easy to back out and say I can't do that. So, hearing that I deserve better helped. I needed the encouragement before I could even look around at other people and only then, realize that if they could do it, I could too."

 

IMAGINE, REACH & BECOME

 Providing a place for economic self-sufficiency to become an attainable goal seems to me a very wise investment which a community can make in itself, to become what it can imagine, together, as it reaches down to help its members reach up.

 I was asked to share what I had learned through the program developed at the Self-Sufficiency Center to help people gain some of the tools needed to see themselves as succeeding in the special and unique dreams each holds in his heart.  Computer training was a specific need I had.  Uncertain at this point in my life that the skills I needed were still realistic to pursue, perhaps the greatest tool I acquired here was the missing hand.  Support comes in many forms: the encouragement I needed to remember some things I already knew was definitely such a hand. 

 Thank you to all of the organizations and businesses and volunteers who have partnered with the Self-Sufficiency Center to take its dream to the mountaintops.  I am really grateful.

                                                                                                                                             Genelle Allen                  4/20/2010

 This is what I remembered . . . about mountains:

 IMAGINE

I walked the way of the valley

Where green flowed with rivers, untamed.

I knew the warmth of the sun’s rays

Inspiring a dream yet unnamed.

 

I tried to imagine “beginnings,”

Both mine and that of the sun.

Something was stirring--a vision;

My climb for discovery had begun!

 

I studied creation around me;

I searched deep within for my place.

A longing had grown to share something,

But the valley had run out of space.

 

I noticed that others were climbing

To find the right spot for their dreams

Which were growing, some blooming,

Gently nourished by high mountain streams.

 

I wondered about the load each one carried:

Some light, some heavy—not meant for just one.

I watched as they helped one another,

Perplexed when the weak helped the strong.

 

Some people sang as they dreamed,

Others sowed tears on the way.

Some touched the face of the sun,

Others, downcast, looked away.

 

I studied creation around me;

More beautiful than man, none is found.

Each man, woman, child . . . such treasures!

Would be mined in the mountain’s hard ground.

I could hardly imagine . . .

 

 

 REACH

My dream was becoming so heavy!

I still couldn’t quite see what it’d be.

Many shared words, how they saw it.

But it wasn’t yet real to me.

 

The mountain had little dips and valleys.

Some places were pleasant, some not.

Many had found their heart’s calling

Many more eyed another mountaintop.

 

Descending from climbing a mountain

When it seems there has been no gain,

Compresses a dream like a diamond

Still waiting for someone to claim.

 

The next valley crossed was not green.

In fact, it was nothing at all.

The next mountain climbed became many.

Each grain of sand now loomed tall.

 

Not many venture through deserts.

Though many dreams seem so small

That the tiniest of desert insects

Could run away with them all!

 

Mirages seemed but cruel illusions

As the sun burned away all but the dream.

The cold desert night didn’t long give relief,

But the extremes gave the vision true sight.

 

I reached for the water which I couldn’t see

As it clung to each next breath of air.

I longed for the comforts that I’d left behind

In the valley and the bounty found there.

 

I reached for the stars in the light of the day

And the sun in the dark of the night.

I tasted the dust of which I too was made,

As I listened for the choice that was right.

 

The dream found its voice in the desert

And determined to sharpen its aim.

It spoke to the mountain looming dark in my sight,

“I’ve come to lay claim to my name!”

I reached the impasse of the past.  “Present” is the tense from now on.

 

  

BECOME

Emotions, confused, become silent

As one weak, is strengthened within.

The warmth of the sun brightens inside

And each step-after-step, starts again.

 

A lesson in “beginnings” is now understood.

Starting over isn’t starting again.

Starting over heads back to green valleys;

Starting againsimply stands, determined to win.

 

A rock has anchored the wind,

Its shelter is hope’s door in the mountain.

A lesson in “reaching” reaches me.

Hidden streams are filling the dream’s fountain.

 

I continue my climb up the mountain.

The climbing moves from outside to in’.

I peek out, now and then . . . the storm rages,

But my dream is tucked safely within.

 

I rest, then I stand; I walk, then I climb.

The dream I’d imagined to share with each one

Was simply the fruit

Of what I longed to become.

 

I rest and consider this mountain,

This enemy which had brought me great fear.

I rest in its midst, a conqueror,

And plant all of my dreams with great cheer.

 

The desert sands are blowing.

I can hear the dreams that are buried there.

I rest and consider this lesson:

Vision hears what it sees, loud and clear.

 

Look for me out in the desert,

Or perhaps in the mountains of the sea.

My dream, of a house filled with peace,

Is building--an oasis, in me.

 

I rest, then I stand . . . “Walk with me?”