After years as a stay-at-home mom, when Kat Lilley became a single parent she had to find housing and a way to support her children, who ranged in age from 18 months to 11 years. A motivated entrepreneur at heart, she found employment and started two home businesses and, for two years, she steadily rebuilt a life for her family.

Then, one of her sons suffered a health crisis, and the family’s life was upended. His care became Kat’s full-time job—she was forced to scale back her work and find more affordable housing.

Kat’s rental applications were repeatedly denied despite good credit and no history of evictions or other complications. A landlord finally explained that her reduced income, combined with the size of her family, made her an undesirable tenant. Her appeals for assistance from various social services agencies were continually denied, as well.

On the day their lease expired, the family loaded most of their possessions into a storage unit and packed the bare essentials into their minivan. Fortunately, they spent only one miserable night in a Walmart parking lot …

… before finding Family Promise of Colorado Springs (CO).

They enrolled in the emergency shelter program and, with Kat’s steady employment history, she soon found a job. Kat figured it was just a matter of time before she’d saved enough for the family to move on.

“I thought I just needed shelter and time, but Family Promise saw I needed to rebuild my self-esteem. I didn’t realize it at the time, but they showed me I had value,” she remembers.

Over the next several months, Kat’s confidence grew, as did her savings account, and when she next applied for a lease her application was accepted. But stable housing didn’t mean Family Promise’s work was done. As they settled into their new home, volunteers and other Family Promise families made sure the family continued to be supported with child care, transportation, meals—anything that would ease their return to independence. When Kat finally felt secure enough to give back, she and her children began volunteering with Family Promise.

Within a year, Family Promise of Colorado Springs invited her to join its board’s finance committee and, shortly after that, the Volunteer Director announced she was leaving and asked Kat to take her place.  A year later she was promoted to Operations Director. Now she was truly in a position to create meaningful change.

Working through Family Promise’s Partners in Housing initiative, an innovative solution that enables Affiliates to purchase and refurbish manufactured homes, Kat launched Hope Homes, a program that enables qualified families to move into homes and, after extensive case management, assume the property’s title.

In 2018, Kat and her colleagues created Heart and Home, a homelessness prevention and diversion program made possible with funding from HUMI (Help Us Move In), a Washington state-based nonprofit that provides funding for homelessness prevention.

“The program is working very well,” says Kat, noting that 54 families have participated to date. “We offer families a full range of homelessness prevention, emergency shelter, and stabilization services.”

But Kat isn’t stopping there. The very fact that families are falling through the cracks when it comes to this country’s housing crisis has drawn Kat into advocacy work.

She explains, “The way HUD defines homelessness means many families don’t ‘qualify’ for assistance. I hope to make a difference.”

To this end, last spring, Kat testified before Congress about the Homeless Children and Youth Act, which would expand HUD’s restrictive definition of homelessness—which excludes many families in crisis—and allow communities to identify families who need assistance.

Kat also sits on Family Promise’s national Guest Advisory Council, a body of Family Promise graduates using their experiences with poverty and homelessness to help shape organizational policies and initiatives. She was also recently elected to the national office’s Board of Trustees, bringing a valuable perspective to the organization.

“There’s empowerment in giving back,” Kat says. “It’s the distinction between ’I am indebted’ and ‘I can make a difference.’”

You know a woman is dedicated to creating a better life for herself and her family when she leaves an abusive marriage at five months pregnant and walks miles through a blizzard to find help. Candice Fife, now the Director of Family Promise of Bryan County (GA) and a member of Family Promise’s Guest Advisory Council (GAC), recalls that day 26 years ago very clearly.

“I was living in New Jersey, and a social services agency told me about Family Promise. It was the middle of winter and snowing and I had no way to get there, so I walked,” she says. She found herself at Family Promise–Union County (FPUC).

During her six months in FPUC’s emergency shelter program, …

… although she faced challenges and hardships, she remembers Family Promise as “the best thing ever.” Staff and volunteers threw her a baby shower, and when her daughter was born, Candice says they didn’t want for anything.

Family Promise also helped her start a business – Kandiland Crafts (her nickname is “Kandi”) – where she made and sold Christmas wreaths, dolls, baskets, and other items. Family Promise saw the business potential and Candice’s motivation and applied for a three-year grant that enabled them to teach other families how to develop and hone business skills like purchasing, inventory control, and sales.

Family Promise helped Candice find transitional housing and provided furnishings and housewares as she embarked on her new life. She was invited to be on the board of directors, and later that year, Family Promise was present for another momentous time in her life when she got married.

In 2001, Candice, now a mother of four, moved to Georgia for the quality of life and enrolled in school. She graduated with degrees in accounting, business administration, and finance. Her love of learning propelled her, and Candice earned a master’s degree in operations management, then another in management and leadership. She’s currently working toward her doctorate in psychology.

“It’s Family Promise – Family Promise and my parents – that gave me the foundation to succeed like this,” Candice explains. “Family Promise gave me the self-confidence to move forward. They helped me start a business and realize what I could do.”

In 2015 Candice was introduced to a group of social services agencies that were developing a Family Promise Affiliate. She saw things coming full circle.

Candice joined the board of the developing Affiliate – now known as Family Promise of Bryan County – and became the fund development and public relations chair, raising more than $60,000 in less than a year. She won a grant to help fund a Day Center, and before she knew it, was asked to serve as director. The Affiliate welcomed its first family in 2016 and has since served 29 families in its shelter program, as well as providing homelessness prevention and stabilization services to many others.

Candice says she shares her story with the families that come to her so they know she truly understands them. “I tell them, ‘If a pregnant woman can walk five miles in the snow for a second chance at life, anyone can do it,’” she says.

She also uses her experience with homelessness in her role on Family Promise’s GAC, a body of Family Promise graduates that helps shape organizational policies and initiatives.

“I never want to forget where I came from,” Candice says. “I was homeless, and I came back. I’m a voice for people who can’t speak up. I take off my director’s hat and speak for families.”

Her daughter Sha’terra, the baby born while Candice was at FPUC, is now a college graduate working toward a master’s degree in social work. Though she does not remember her time at Family Promise, she has no doubt it not only changed her mother’s life, it impacted the paths she and her siblings have taken. Her choice to study social work was inspired in part by what her mother went through.

Candice’s son, Don-yea, recalls watching his mother fight to keep her children on the right track.

“She always made something out of nothing,” he remembers, adding that he and his sisters all seem to have inherited their mother’s passion for family. Don-yea now has an 18-month-old son and vows to pass on the lessons he learned from his mother.

“I want to teach him to believe in himself and never give up. You can be and do whatever you want in life if you work for it,” he says. “Look at my mom. She just bought her first house at age 48. She’s always dealt with problems head first. She’s always been there for her family.”

Youngest child Rae’jean will soon graduate from college with a degree in chemistry and plans to become a pharmacist.

“They didn’t experience homelessness, but they know my story,” Candice says of her children. “They tell me every day how proud they are of me.”