NO TIME TO WASTE

(Article published in HWW Dec 2009)

Encouraged by staff to spend their days learning, young women staying at West End Intergenerational Residence have turned their experience of homelessness into an opportunity. While applying for housing, they attend GED prep classes on site from 8:30 to 2:40, and take advantage of other classes offered such as parenting.

Kalia Calward, age 19, came to WIR to escape an abusive relationship. “I’d dropped out of school in the 9th grade,” she says. “I had just fallen in with the wrong crowd and started cutting school. Then I started working on a GED but I dropped it cause I was exhausted working two jobs, 40 hours a week at Wendy’s and weekends at a barbershop. I was moving from one friend’s house to another then a women’s residence where they wouldn’t have let me stay after the baby arrived. So I came here. I take the practice GED next month. The baby can go into day care after he is two months old and my plan is to go to college to get my RN license.”

Jennifer Nieves, age 21, came to WIR with her 2 year old son Eric from Covenant House where young people are given shelter but only allowed to stay 30 days. “I was so excited when I heard about the GED class I signed up right away and I haven’t missed a day,” she says. “This is a big eye opener for me. I’m learning a bunch of math. We start with that every morning. We’re doing science and in social science we’re learning about the American Revolution. I’ll take the practice test December. I want to go into the health field, to be nurse’s assistant.”