Life is a series of struggles - but Gloria did what she had to do overcome and emerge on the other side.
It almost seems like yesterday when Gloria and her ten-year-old daughter were living in a hotel. Times were desperate then and options were few. Gloria had called around different shelters and ultimately found her way to Seacoast Family Promise, drawn by its family-focused programming.
“Everyone has different stories about how they ended up homeless,” Gloria says. “I didn’t have much family support and I didn’t know how to save money or anything. I didn’t have the skills necessary as a single mom to take care of my daughter.”
Her upward trajectory almost immediately began when she joined the program and met Executive Director Pati Frew-Waters.
“When I got here, Miss Pati explained what I had to do,” she says. “Sometimes, people just need structure and I feel like I'm that type of person. It was so helpful.”
Eventually, Gloria found housing and was able to leverage the skills she learned at Seacoast Family Promise to stabilize her financial situation. Which isn’t to say everything has been a piece of cake since then. Life is life, and there are always challenges.
“It's been a little bit of a struggle sometimes,” Gloria says. “I’m always working to keep that structure in place. I mean, we all have to do that, right?”
Which is why she remains connected to Seacoast Family Promise. One of those connection points is the annual Adopt-a-Family for Christmas, where donors provided bags of gifts to former and current Seacoast Family Promise families.
“It is so helpful,” she says. “Especially now, when things are really tight. I am just so thankful.”