Hi, my name is Elizabeth, and I'm asking for your help. I know so many of us are feeling Go Fund Me Fatigue, because we are asked over and over to support others in need, but please read on and considered helping this family. No amount of help is too small. Michelle is a single mother of 4 kids, and she has just had a house fire. She cannot return to the house, and the majority of her belongings have been destroyed. She is facing homelessness again, and for the first time since I’ve known her, she looks broken. Michelle has spent years trying to pull herself and her kids out of poverty and homelessness. She has gone back to school to get training and certifications in her field; she has hunted down programs for her kids; she has consulted services for support; she moved back to a town that holds many unhappy memories, to a family that has been a source of abuse and neglect, because she was told she would have some security for her children. Yet each step forward has been met with two steps back, and while many of us have the love and support of family and friends to keep us afloat, Michelle has had to simply endure, and try to escape from, domestic abuse at the hands of a parent or partner her entire life. Despite this, Michelle has continued to push forward, working harder than anyone I know, for the sake of her kids. She has denied herself the most basic of care, endured the abuse of family, forced herself to ask for help despite knowing she would then face the judgment and humiliation of those who would look down on her. I have known and tried to help Michelle get more than two steps forward for several years now, and I need to reiterate that she has worked harder than ANYONE I know to pull herself and her kids out of danger. Michelle hasn’t failed to get ahead because she is lazy; rather, despite a determination to succeed far greater than any I believe I mysellf have ever possessed, she cannot get past the multiple hurdles placed in her way. For the first time ever, I heard her admit she didn’t know if she could go on. I do not have the money to do what it would take to give Michelle what she needs to climb the mountain to security: safe housing with affordable rent and working appliances; a reliable car that doesn’t require constant, expensive work; a good phone with a decent cellular plan; working wifi; healthy food, and enough of it. Michelle has a job, and she is responsible and has extraordinary work ethic. If she could get the boost she deserves to start over, she and her kids have a real chance to change the trajectory of their lives. I ask you to help me help her and her kids get a fair boost at life. Michelle and her kids deserve a village.
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