Salvation Army helps single mom get back on her feet

A Tulsa woman facing life on the streets with her two young children is giving thanks to the program that turned her life around. <br/><br/>She went to the Salvation Army's Center of Hope in Tulsa

Thursday, May 12th 2005, 10:05 am

By: News On 6

A Tulsa woman facing life on the streets with her two young children is giving thanks to the program that turned her life around.

She went to the Salvation Army's Center of Hope in Tulsa and as the News on 6's Heather Lewin shows us, this single mom didn't get a handout, she got a hand up.

It was a twist of life Kim Watkins wasn't ready for. "I had just lost my home, I had lost my job." Suddenly on her own with two kids. Kim turned to the Salvation Army for help. â€œI had never thought I would have to live in a shelter." She feared the worst and instead found a support system she'd never imagined.

Case worker Faye Haley studied the situation and helped form a game plan, re-train Kim and find her a job. "So she said I don't know Faye, I haven't been in school in so many years, I'm afraid of that." But with Faye's encouragement and a safe place to live in a furnished apartment, Kim made it through TTC's nursing assistant program with excellent grades, then came back with the best news of all.

Kim Watkins: "I came running in the door to Faye, I got a job, I got a job and it pays almost $10 an hour and I knew then that we were gonna be okay." Faye Haley: "Oh I was so happy we did a jingle out there in the lobby." Now 7 months later she's in her own home, debts paid. "On birthdays I'm able to go out and buy my kids nice birthday presents."

Faye Haley: "She said I would have never made it if you wouldn't have kept encouraging me, but she was a real good client." Kim Watkins: "Faye taught me while I was here how to get out and do things for myself again. She restored my faith in myself, my faith in mankind and I owe everything to her."

The Salvation Army Center of Hope operates 19 apartments where homeless families can stay for up to two years, while they put their lives back together. Workers say they focus on families, because children in that situation are at high risk for developing physical and emotional problems later in life.