Client Moments in August and September
August and September gave us three moments we keep coming back to:
A room full of women answered the question "What keeps you coming back?"...
One woman named the label she'd been carrying and decided she's done carrying it...
One volunteer gave four quiet hours so a room full of women could start healing...
In September, 16 women completed Re:New Self-Worth, 16 new women signed up for Re:New Emotional Health, and we saw record numbers of class attendance, new requests for help, and women served.
So why did these 3 moments stand out?
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The question at lunch. At our September Connection Lunch, our advocates asked the ladies one simple question: "What keeps you coming back to 431?" Here's what they said:
Community support
"I feel safe here."
Hearing different perspectives
Understanding why we do what we do, not just what we do
Not being alone, and sharing with one another
Learning that keeps going, even as a graduate
Confronting the lies they've believed
But the most powerful was one woman who said she loves seeing the fruit in the other women's lives, and she wants it for herself. That's how change spreads here. Nobody is pushed into it. Women watch it happen in the woman sitting next to them, and they decide they're allowed to want it too.
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The woman who let go of a label. After several classes and months of working with her mentor, one of our ladies said something out loud that she'd been circling for a long time. She realized she had come to see herself as a victim, and that this view was keeping her from healing, from growing, from finding peace with her past and restoring relationships that matter to her.
What happened to her was real, and she was a genuine victim to her circumstances. But she saw that letting it define who she is was holding her back. She told us she doesn't want to carry that label anymore, and she's working to root it out of her thinking, one thought at a time.
Seeing it took courage. Saying it took more. That's the work of our donors through the classes and mentors they support: helping a woman find the truth for herself, then walking with her as she lives it.
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The volunteer who stayed. Before 16 new women could start Re:New Emotional Health, someone had to put the workbooks together. One of our volunteers, a widow, came in and assembled them for four hours straight. She didn't ask for recognition. She just wanted every woman to have a book in her hands on the first night. Women who are learning to carry their grief and their hard stories will be working through pages she put together by hand.
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And finally, a note on our graduates…
In August, one of our graduates bought her first home. She had lived with her parents for 15 years, and her goal was complete independence. She made it, and she's keeping it up. Our volunteers helped her move in. That's what slow steps look like when they add up: years of courage and consistency, and then a set of keys.
This is because of you. Every class, every coaching session, and every workbook is free for the women we serve, and that's possible because people like you give.
You can give toward the next set of women through the Independence Fund. Even a special gift of $25 means a woman gets support she asks for, but a monthly commitment helps us open the next Side-by-Side spot.
