Laura is a single mom with a teenage son. Like many families, the pandemic was an especially hard time for her family.
But Laura faced an avalanche of life challenges, almost all at once. Divorce, job loss, a looming eviction, and health issues, all while trying to complete her PhD.
So when she got a past due bill from her previous landlord demanding payment, she felt lost and hopeless.
“It never really occurred to me to reach out and ask for public assistance. I just figured I had to go at this alone. Everyone struggles,” Laura said.
Her previous landlord suggested she contact Johnson County Government’s multi-service center. And that’s where she learned about available resources through United Way of Greater Kansas City Impact 100 partner, Jewish Family Services.
“I’m very employable. I never saw myself in this situation,” said Laura. “I just didn’t know how I was going to get out of it.”
The stress of an ongoing custody battle, working full-time, pursuing higher education, trying to pay old debts, and manage life’s day-to-day challenges took its toll.
“I broke down. I had my first major anxiety attack of my life. I ended up in the hospital. I thought I was dying,” Laura said. “I also developed a bladder condition and needed a very expensive surgery.”
When Jewish Family Services came into her life, things began to turn around for the better. The team there enrolled Laura in the Family Empowerment Program
“It’s a step-by-step process of working with the family, listening to their story and understanding their needs,” said Erika Tepstra, Jewish Family Services family empowerment program manager. “We’re really able to bring all the community partners together at one table with a family that is experiencing some type of situation and usually we can work together and kind of address some of the higher needs and then move on from there.”
A central component is working to keep families in a stable housing environment and to keep their children in the same school system. That was vital for Laura, whose 13-year-old had bounced between schools, struggled socially and academically, and had only recently found a middle school that was a good fit.
“My son was diagnosed with ADHD, so he was having a lot of trouble at school. It was really important to us to stay in the same neighborhood, to keep his friends and his teachers,” Laura said.
The Family Empowerment Program helped her tackle her family’s biggest stressors, piece by piece. It looks different for each family but that help can range from paying bills to prevent eviction, finding stable housing, job placement, connection to health services, food and nutrition support, and more.
“I felt like I didn’t have the energy to even deal with one problem, let alone the various problems that were compiling on each other every single day,” said Laura. “I felt like every day it was something new. As a single parent, you feel very alone. Having Jewish Family Services on my side to understand, to even just to acknowledge what was happening, it meant the world.”
Life for Laura looks much different today. She’s now employed within the marketing department at the University of Kansas Health System, is a homeowner, and has plans to resume her PhD program. She’s exceptionally grateful for the new lease on life she has, thanks to the family empowerment initiative.
“We need to prioritize funding for these kind of programs because it can really make or break a family’s future and ultimately cost all our systems more money than it would be if we made the initial investment,” Laura said. “So these programs are really preventative and critically important to fund versus a ‘nice to have’ because some families, even the strongest people in our societies, sometimes need help. I am very blessed that I was able to get out of this and get my life back on track.”
*Note: The program participant’s name has been altered, per her request to maintain privacy.
