Transformation in work, education and at home mean a brighter, more stable future for this single mother of two.
Lilian is a client of Springboard Forward, a United Way grantee that helps low-wage workers to develop a long-term vision for career mobility.
Springboard’s Engaged Employment program begins with the jobs that workers currently have and uses those jobs as a springboard for improving their future.
Lilian enjoyed the work she did in the Nutrition Services Department at El Camino Hospital, though she wrestled with how she could keep it and still maintain her family’s well being. As a part-time employee, how would the single mother of two ever get within reach of the future she dreamed of for her kids?
Lilian was employed in a 2 / 5 position at the hospital—which amounted to about 16 hours per week. In order to keep food on the table, she worked a second job at a local market and struggled to provide a stable home environment for her children.
In the five years since leaving a difficult marriage in Japan and arriving in the U.S. with her children, she had amassed significant debt, to which she devoted a huge chunk of her small income each month. Lilian had no benefits through either employer, so she also paid out of pocket for her children’s health insurance. There was little room left in her life or her finances to support the building of a future—neither her own education, which she desperately wanted, or the college fund her 15-year-old daughter would soon need.
Read the rest of Lilian’s success story.
