Every day at Women’s Empowerment we are asking the women we serve to believe in themselves, believe in their hopes and dreams, believe that they can overcome homelessness, building bright futures for themselves and their children.

After facing many challenges, like so many of the women who walk through our doors, 34-year-old Jackie Olivares wasn’t sure if she could believe in herself again. When she became a mother at the age of 19, Jackie had big dreams of having a career and independently providing for her children. The trauma and abuse she suffered in her adolescence led to depression, mental health issues, and eventually substance use. Through years of abusive relationships and her battle with addiction, Jackie’s dreams began to feel like nothing but a distant memory. At her lowest point, Jackie was separated from her children and living on the street – she felt broken.

“Imagining in my head what my tomorrow would look like was a big blank area in my mind. I was enslaved to poverty, homelessness, and worst of all my own destruction.”

But Jackie was resilient and determined. She wanted to love herself, reunite her family, and rebuild her life. She got to work looking for resources and found Women’s Empowerment. “The name alone drew me in, I wanted confidence. I wanted to become empowered.” Jackie enrolled in Women’s Empowerment nine-week job readiness and empowerment program. With support from the community, staff, and volunteers, she immediately started working towards the dreams she had almost forgotten.

After graduating, Jackie learned about our brand new Banking Academy, a paid job training program launched in partnership with American River Bank, Tri Counties Bank, Umpqua Bank, and Westamerica Bank. Throughout this pilot program, Jackie learned the skills needed to be a bank teller and have a career in banking. Each day her self-confidence grew:

“It turns out we had everything we needed within ourselves already. Because of Women’s Empowerment, I know that I am complete, that I am enough. I’m no longer bound to a future of being homeless, being in a mental institution, or being in jail.”

Jackie graduated from our first Banking Academy in October and is already in the interview process for teller positions at two different banks. Today, she has a year of sobriety, is actively working to reunite her family, has her own apartment to call home, and is well on her way to a career in banking.

For 20 years our community has come together to build pathways out of poverty for women like Jackie. More than 1,700 women have graduated from our programs with their 3,800 children and changed the course of their lives. But with Sacramento’s current housing crisis and family homelessness on the rise, we truly need your continued support.

By making a donation to Women’s Empowerment this holiday season you can help the growing population of women experiencing homelessness rebuild their lives and gain stability. Your gift will help sustain our programs so that women like Jackie can not only dare to believe in their dreams, but achieve them!

With deep gratitude,

Lisa Culp
Executive Director
Women’s Empowerment

P.S. Your gift makes a powerful impact as together we continue to work to end homelessness, one woman, one family, at a time.