Pathways

After fleeing an abusive relationship, Jennie found herself at Pathways, along with her two of her four children. Because of her circumstances, Jennie had to make the decision to place her older two children with a relative temporarily, and so the family was divided.

Pathways provided Jennie and her younger children with temporary shelter and helped her find employment. Pathways also helped Jennie establish a savings plan so she could eliminate her debt and move from shelter into more permanent housing.

As her situation improved, Pathways provided rental assistance so that Jennie could move into her own housing, and soon her older children were able to join her. With the family reunited, Jennie focused on building her career, and she became a director at a local nonprofit.

Pathways celebrates many such success stories each year by providing women and children with the support they need to get back on their feet.

Through its Day Center, Pathways provides food, clothing, showers, laundry facilities, classes and case management for women staying at Pathways, other nearby shelters, or the street. It operates transitional shelters at its downtown and Southside locations. The agency’s Safe Haven program provides a small, homelike environment for chronically homeless women with a mental illness.

Over the years, it has become obvious that families need more than shelter to escape homelessness. Through its Employment Readiness Program, Pathways works to help women increase their incomes. While women work on improving their job skills during the six-week course, their children can participate in the Learning to Be a Kid program, which focuses on teaching anger management, good decision making and problem-solving skills. In 2007, Pathways took its programming one step further and, with the help of the North Alabama Chapter of the Financial Planning Association, developed a financial literacy program, Fiscally Fit. This program, which now utilizes the FDIC’s Money Smart program provided by BBVA Compass, provides financial education for women and children.

Pathways' mission is to end homelessness for women and children through hospitality, housing and hope.

 

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