Each month we will be celebrating one of our clients. This month, we celebrate the growth and successes of Melanie. Recently, Melanie was featured in an article in our local newspaper. She has overcome many obstacles to get to where she is today. Living through a very difficult childhood, Melanie fell in with the wrong crowd and after years of methamphetamine use, followed by jail time for car theft and probation violations was looking at jail time if she failed to complete the court-ordered drug treatment program. While pregnant, the thought of giving birth to her baby in prison and losing custody scared her enough to successfully complete the drug recovery program. When she left the program she was sober, but homeless. She spent time staying with friends and lived in several sober-living complexes with her son, Timmy. She eventually moved in with her boyfriend as she was pregnant with his child. He chose to bring drugs into the home and kicked her in the stomach. Not wanting to go back to that lifestyle, Melanie connected with several shelters where she got counseling, took parenting classes, looked for work and learned to save half of her $555 welfare check. With no high school diploma and no marketable skills, Melanie was only able to hold a few menial jobs. With the state's welfare-to-work program, she headed to a temporary manual labor agency. She was the only female on a crew that cleaned up construction sites and delivered appliances. After work, she would get cleaned up and look for a permanent job. With her persistence and tenacity, she found a telemarketing job paying $7.50/hour, plus commission, more family-friendly hours and benefits within six weeks. In July, Melanie and her two children moved into one of Foothill Family Shelter's one-year low income apartments, that she rents for $282/month. Timmy, now three years old is getting acclimated to having his own room.  His sister, Katelyn is a thriving one-year old. Through the mandatory savings program at FFS, Melanie has saved $2,000 and in a year hopes to have enough for a down payment on a mobile home. We congratulate Melanie's successes and know she will achieve many more in the future!