Client Stories

Single Mom Fights Her Way Back

Divorce and car accident result in homelessness

Leaving Bakersfield with nothing after a devastating divorce, Angela moved to Fairfield with her teenage son hoping for a fresh start. Working two retail jobs and with help from her son’s supplemental employment income, Angela was able to make it on her own with her son in their own place.

But a car accident left her son unable to work, and within several months the loss of his income resulted in them losing their car. Soon after, their electricity and phones were shut off. Then finally, they were evicted from their apartment.

Angela first came to our Community Outreach Center looking for a place to stay temporarily. She was not comfortable leaving her son at the Center by himself while she went to work and fortunately, rooms at the new Bridge to Life Center had just opened up.

“I didn’t know where to go or where we would sleep,” Angela commented. “Once we moved into the Bridge to Life Center, my faith and my hope came back. Life was so good here, my daughter came to live here too, in the single women’s residence.”

So the first graduate of the Bridge to Life Center was also the first to recruit a family member into the neighboring single women program. Angela had passed on the hope she received, extending her motherly love to bring her daughter close to her and into a program to get her the help she needed to work out past troubles.