As a young mom, La’Chelle was struggling to make ends meet and was overwhelmed. Her child was enrolled in CMCA’s Head Start hme visitation program, and she was motivated to set goals to work toward a better future. However, her family success coach noticed La’Chelle making financial decisions that blocked her attempts to reach her goals and referred her to CMCA’s Financial Opportunity Center® (FOC) program. 

La’Chelle enrolled in the program and got to work fixing her finances, focusing on the toughest issue first—herself. Working with her coach, La’Chelle realized she used spending as an attempt to escape the things that overwhelmed her.

“My emotional state was everywhere,” La’Chelle says. “I was stressed, overwhelmed, and depressed due to not being able to work to pay my bills. It impacted me because I was down to the point of moving back home with my family to get help. I didn’t want to move back home, so I was figuring out how to pull myself out of the situation.”

With support, La’Celle felt ready to tackle her challenges head on. 

Due to a lack of childcare, La’Chelle had previously been able to work only eight hours a week, not enough to cover her bills, let alone get ahead. Her FOC coach helped her secure reliable childcare, and La’Chelle began picking up as many shifts as possible. With a more reliable income, La’Chelle and her coach created a budget to ensure her regular bills were paid. Her coach also conencted her with some resources to help her catch up on bills she was behind on.

La’Chelle’s habit of living above her means led her to incur payday loan debt. After catching up on her bills, learning how to meal prep and shop for groceries efficiently, and giving herself an allowence to still spend on fun things freely, La’Chelle was motivated to put extra funds from each paycheck toward this debt. She paid off three payday loans and saved more than $2,000 for maternity leave. 

“Working with the programs has allowed me to save and budget along with meal prepping, trying to figure out ways to prevent from going back in debt,” she says. “If I didn’t have the help from the FOC, I believe I wouldn’t have been able to pay off any debt and feel good about accomplishing a goal.”

Importantly, La’Chille realized her own strength as a single  mother to plant her roots and provide a firm foundation for her two children.