SUPPORTING FAMILIES
Empowering Families to Turn Dreams Into Reality
Christina had goals for herself and her child—she just needed the resources and support to succeed. Christina struggled as a teenager and young adult as she grew up in foster care. She came to ACHIEVEability at 19 with her 2-year-old daughter Ari’elle, after they had spent more than a year in shelter.
By the time she joined the Family Self-Sufficiency Program (FSSP)—ACHIEVEability’s transformational program that helps single parent families overcome social and economic barriers to thrive—Christina had a plan.
Inspired during the birth of her child, she wanted to become a nurse. “I was trying to figure out my life, and now I was sitting there with a baby,” she said. “I didn’t have anybody. I was alone, and I was scared. The nurses were so great to me. It’s not anything they said, but their presence really, really helped me.”
ACHIEVEability offered the stability and support Christina needed to make her plan a reality. ACHIEVEability provided her and Ari’elle a stable, affordable home, while she worked towards a nursing degree. As part of our comprehensive program, we provided support in areas such as financial education, personal development and parenting to keep Christina on track to reach her goals. Our coaches met with Christina one-on-one to offer advice and encouragement, while she did the hard work of going to school, raising a child and working all at the same time.
“The coaches really cared,” she said. “You can tell when someone wants what’s best for you, truly.”
ACHIEVEability provided Christina a foundation that allowed her to excel. As a participant of FSSP, Christina completed courses at the Community College of Philadelphia and started nursing school at Gwynedd Mercy University in 2017. This May, during the pandemic, Christina graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing. As a child of the foster system, she understood the significance of reaching this milestone, and was sad that she was not able to attend graduation in person.
Christina is excited and proud of her achievements and is not stopping there. In June, she passed her NCLEX, a standardized test required to become licensed as a nurse, on her first try. She is currently commuting to a nurse residency program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She plans to move to Baltimore soon to continue the program and start work on her Master of Science in Nursing.
“Being a role model is important,” Christina says. Ari’elle, now 7, loves karate and gymnastics and is becoming an avid reader. Watching her mother work hard to support the two of them, Ari’elle knows that their family is stable, and that gives her the security and confidence to succeed as well. Christina loves to hear Arielle say, “My mom’s a nurse! I’m going to be a nurse too!”