Post by Logan on Feb 15, 2016 3:31:14 GMT -6
Getting people out of poverty, into the work force is focus of state budget proposal
Kiocia Wilkerson leaves for work on a GRTC bus each weekday morning at 7:17, seven minutes after loading her two children onto Richmond public school buses.
About 58 minutes later, after changing buses once, she arrives for work at the Maymont Preschool Learning Center, next to Amelia Street School where her autistic son, who will turn 5 next week, is a student.
This daily routine represents the beginnings of a transformed life for Wilkerson, a 27-year-old single mother in one of Richmond’s public housing projects. Her family is one of 18 public housing households in BLISS, or Building Lives to Independence and Self-Sufficiency, a new program under Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ ambitious anti-poverty initiative that wraps services around poor families looking for a way out.
“I actually have someone to call now,” Wilkerson said. “They actually help me work through my struggles, my barriers. They help me identify my barriers.”
Read more: www.richmond.com/news/virginia/article_3196eee9-e07d-5148-af67-81dcb4338132.html
Kiocia Wilkerson leaves for work on a GRTC bus each weekday morning at 7:17, seven minutes after loading her two children onto Richmond public school buses.
About 58 minutes later, after changing buses once, she arrives for work at the Maymont Preschool Learning Center, next to Amelia Street School where her autistic son, who will turn 5 next week, is a student.
This daily routine represents the beginnings of a transformed life for Wilkerson, a 27-year-old single mother in one of Richmond’s public housing projects. Her family is one of 18 public housing households in BLISS, or Building Lives to Independence and Self-Sufficiency, a new program under Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ ambitious anti-poverty initiative that wraps services around poor families looking for a way out.
“I actually have someone to call now,” Wilkerson said. “They actually help me work through my struggles, my barriers. They help me identify my barriers.”
Read more: www.richmond.com/news/virginia/article_3196eee9-e07d-5148-af67-81dcb4338132.html