![\"\"](\"https:\/\/caygalgonlifehouse.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Mariel-Garcia-Family_Resized-296x300.jpg\")
Mariel is a single mom with six children and is determined to get her life back on track. She first reached out to the Life House in February when she was pregnant and experiencing homelessness. At the time, Mariel stayed with family and friends and slept on people\u2019s couches wherever she could. Some nights, her only option was to sleep in her car.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nShe realized that bouncing around from house to house and sleeping in her car were not options for her and her baby after giving birth, so she started to pursue a more sustainable opportunity. Mariel moved into the Life House residential program in the spring. She knew she wanted to give her children what she never had, so she immediately defined her short- and long-term goals. After settling into the program with her newborn, she quickly began recognizing the opportunity she was given through the program and set out to work towards her goals actively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mariel has been participating in the residential program for about six months now. Since moving into Life House, she has been working towards reunification with her five other children. Her goal is to move out of Life House and into a place of her own where she has all her kids under one roof. Ultimately, she wants to own her own home. She is working towards financial stability; she enrolled in a job-readiness program and was able to secure a job shortly after enrolling.<\/span><\/p>\n Mariel enjoys doing nails, and it\u2019s definitely a talent that she possesses! She currently does nails for her close friends and family, but her ultimate goals are finishing school, becoming a nail technician, pursuing a business education, and opening her own salon. Mariel is also passionate about giving back to the community and feels it is important to share her experience as a young mother. In the future, she wants to work as an advocate and support teen moms in our community by sharing her testimony and providing education, tools, and resources to the young moms who cross her path.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How has CGLH made an impact on you and your family?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThey made a big impact in my life because I didn’t believe in myself before I got here. Everyone here is so positive and helpful. They make sure I know that I am not alone. I compare my life to how it was before I came to CGLH, and I am a brand-new person. I see things a lot more positively \u2014 especially knowing I have people who care about me.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What is one thing you would like our community supporters to know about the Life House? <\/b>\u00a0<\/span> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mariel is a single mom with six children and is determined to get her life back on track. She first reached out to the Life House in February when she was pregnant and experiencing homelessness. At the time, Mariel stayed with family and friends and slept on people\u2019s couches wherever she could. Some nights, her only option was to sleep in her car.\u00a0 She realized that bouncing around from house to house and sleeping in her car were not options for her and her baby after giving birth, so she started to pursue a more sustainable opportunity. Mariel moved into the Life House residential program in the spring. She knew she wanted to give her children what she never had, so she immediately defined her short- and long-term goals. After settling into the program with her newborn, she quickly began recognizing the opportunity she was given through the program and set out to work towards her goals actively.\u00a0 Mariel has been participating in the residential program for about six months now. Since moving into Life House, she has been working towards reunification with her five other children. Her goal is to move out of Life House and into a place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"
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<\/span>\u201cThey are good people. They do help you, and they do care about you and your future.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/caygalgonlifehouse.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Melissa-and-Son-copy-1024x659.jpg\")
\r\n\r\nMelissa reached out to CGLH in 2020, looking for housing services late into the pregnancy of her third child. Earlier in the year, she got COVID while pregnant and was severely symptomatic, causing her to miss a significant amount of time from work. She was living paycheck-to-paycheck and her time out of work cost her the apartment she was living in with her two teenage children. After getting COVID, losing wages, and being forced to move out of her apartment, she had no choice other than to send her two teenagers to live with family and live out of her car. CGLH made plans to move her into the maternity shelter as she would have nowhere to go with Baby Boy after giving birth; returning to her car with her baby was not an option. Melissa went into labor sooner than expected. Fortunately, there were no complications, baby and mom were healthy, and both adjusted quickly to life at CGLH's transitional maternity program. During Melissa\u2019s maternity leave, she Secured a new job, acquired Daycare, and got Baby Boy a spot at a facility nearby. Only eight weeks postpartum, she returned to work. Over the course of the next few months, Melissa enrolled in an LPN to RN educational program through a local community college. She also started to apply for different housing programs in the area, hoping one would ultimately lead to a successful transition out of CGLH and into a space of her own for herself and her family. In the nine months Melissa spent at CGLH, she saved a significant amount of money and secured a four-bedroom unit through Bethlehem Housing Authority's Public Housing Program. For Melissa, this means affordable, long-term housing and the chance to raise her three children under the same roof. She continues to work towards her RN degree. She was hired as a technical partner in the cardiac arrest ICU at a local hospital, affording her higher wages. The future looks much brighter for her and her family. Although working, raising children, and going to school is a mammoth task in itself, doing it without a support system and as a single mother seems monumental. Melissa knows that we will continue to support her. We encourage her and all our graduates to keep in contact and reach out for help, even if that means we just listen and encourage.","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n