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A Homeless Mother's Tale
What are your options when you're about to have a baby and you're staying
in a homeless shelter? This is a grim scenario for a young mother-to-be with
no family to turn to for support. Such was the case for Antoinette Wallace.
Fortunately, she met Dawn, a Swope Health Services Outreach worker, who arranged
for Antoinette to receive prenatal care at Swope Health Central and secured the hospital
delivery of her son, D'ari.
Antoinette's joy of becoming a
mother was dampened by the reality
that her baby's new home was a
homeless shelter. She wanted things
to get better for herself and D'ari,
but she didn't know where or how
to start. Again, she turned to Swope.
Outreach workers Dawn and
Quyiim guided Antoinette to the social services available to her. With their help, she
was able to get an apartment and find both the courage and the resources to enroll
in a community college for a nursing assistant certificate. "Dawn and Quyiim helped
me get my head right," says Antoinette. "They gave
me the confidence to turn my life around."
She graduated as a certified nursing assistant
and now things are looking up for her
and D'ari. "My next step is to see if I qualify
for tuition assistance so that I can
become a licensed practical nurse,"
Antoinette continues.
The Outreach Department's
mission is to bring healthcare
to homeless individuals
wherever they are found
– in shelters, soup
kitchens and under
bridges. But if you ask
Antoinette Wallace,
she'll tell you they bring
so much more to the
lives they touch.
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