“I am still somebody who has a voice, my voice matters.”

Jackie’s Story

Jackie came to Hospitality House after a month of being homeless. Jackie had worked as a para-educator in a local school district over for 15 years. Naturally, Jackie was shocked when she heard that her hours had been cut significantly – making rent impossible to pay. Jackie lost her job, her home, and sense of normalcy in everyday life.

Jackie just needed a place to gather herself – a place that she could straighten out her affairs, prioritize her needs and create a plan of action to get her life back on track. Hospitality House is the place where she believed that could happen.

Understanding Jackie’s desires, her Case Manager honed in on Jackie’s priorities: housing and employment. Jackie worked hard to achieve her Case Management goals each week and spent very little time at the shelter as she was always out accomplishing what needed to be done. After having done the leg work, Jackie was challenged to wait for responses back about housing and employment and needed to trust the process that her hard work would pay off. In the meantime, Jackie and her Case Manager decided it would be wise to volunteer some of her free time at the YWCA. Jackie had expressed previous interest in working with them and knew that there were housing opportunities through the YWCA.

Jackie volunteered faithfully a couple times each week, for a few hours each time. It was through this relational networking with the Issaquah YWCA that Jackie connected with Family Village, a housing program that turned out to be a perfect fit. Jackie applied and was accepted into their program. 

This year, Jackie is still living in housing provided by the YWCA. Jackie said she is still in contact with the women who were at Hospitality House while she was here. Soon, she will be moving to Washington DC to be with her daughter and plans to home school her granddaughter.