HOPE

***UPDATE***
I was overwhelmed with response from people who wanted to help this family. I am happy to say that I have enough money to pay the bill and I am on my way to the electric company right now. I also got some personal hygiene items donated and some money for gas. I talked with the mom and she is really overwhelmed with gratitude towards the kindness of strangers. If you ever doubt, there are still people with good hearts who are willing to give some HOPE to others.
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Ok, so I never ever talk about my job. Many of you may have zero clue what I do. Here it is: I am a glorified social worker. I have a LOT of jobs/ tasks/ responsibilities, but the bottom line is that I am here to help families. I work at the Head Start Pro.gram at Wes.tern Ken.tucky Univer.sity.
As a program, we are lucky to have very few families to come to us in true crisis. Even luckier that the families that do come to us in crisis are usually not in a cycle of crisis. We have a lot of student's children who attend here so most of the time, they have it very together. I see a lot and I often feel like I have become somewhat calused to situations. I have worked here for 8 years, but I have been in social work for 10 years. I have seen a lot of "cycles" where people are down on their luck, get help, make bad decisions again and get into a mess again. It's very disheartening. But when I am faced with a situation that is different than the norm, I am heartbroken when I cannot help.
This week I have been faced with a situation that is not the "norm". A parent came to me in need of help with her electric bill. Can you imagine being a parent to a pre-schooler, a full-time student AND working a full time {shift work} job? I mean when I think about that I realize I don't know stress! You amy be asking WHY? are they in such a situation. I know this family and I know they are good planners. But they live tight. And both mom and dad's hours were cut at work. I was not able to find much help with the electric bill. I got a call this morning that their car ran out of gas {now they can't get to work} and they need some essential living items {TOILET PAPER!}
So here is my call for help! I would not do this for just any family. But I feel like they are about to get into a vicious cycle {no gas to get to work, no paycheck, when/if they do get paid, it is going to be so hard to catch up!} If you want to help, you can paypal me money for them at jennfields75@gmail.com. Only do it if you really really want to. And please don't quit reading because I am asking for this! I have just worked on this all week and come up short and I finally figured I have a pretty good forum here so why not try! Any time I can give someone who is so downhearted and feels so lost a little hope, I feel really privileged to be able to do it. If I can give these folks a little hope to keep on trudging and get their degrees, it is the least I can do!