Emma is one of our children coming from a single-parent home. She is typical of the children we serve.  Her home life is filled with stress and instability every day, as her mother struggles with holding down a full-time job with two children who need her.  There is little opportunity for extracurricular activities or ongoing learning programs.  As is often the case, her children feel the stress and instability caused by poverty also. This left Emma with limited resources to have a sense of well-being and hope for her future.

Emma came to us with a casual interest in computers.  Her plans for the future consisted of graduating high school and finding an hourly job.  As she was learning computer programming, she realized she really enjoyed it.  Through mentoring, she discovered this could be a career path for her.  She started seeking out ways above and beyond class time to grow and improve her skills.  Now, Emma wants to think about going to college and making long-term plans for her future.  She now has a freshness and optimism resulting from having hope and understanding that her future is filled with opportunity!