Women Want to Work But…

By Denise Andorfer
Vincent Village Executive Director

This morning I had a client come into my office and tell me the news of her getting a job.

After living in the shelter now for eight months, she is ready for a change. A minimum wage job at a restaurant in the kitchen is the job she started with. She was hired four months ago for a retail position that was set up through Vincent Village.

She said “Denise I can get a job but I can’t keep it. Between my kids getting sick, school delays because of bad weather and lack of daycare I cannot keep a job.”

The retail job had a strict policy on being late-no excuses-three times and you're gone. This is a struggle even though we are helping provide vouchers for day care and arranging for pick up from the daycare center.

Even though we are fighting to break down these barriers, for a single mom of three or more children it is nearly impossible to juggle work and the responsibilities of parenting, especially when you have no family support and no transportation.

As we work to train women to get and keep jobs it keeps me wondering: how we help these moms get out of the hole when they are making minimum wage and get part time hours?

She spends so much effort to get to work and get the kids to daycare and has nothing to show for it. It is easy to see how she might feel defeated.

Any insight on how we can help create support networks for moms who have no one?