Over a year and half ago the Homeless Commission called the offices of AtG to meet with one of their summer “stimulus money” workers (this was the summer that the teens were placed in Non-profits to work while being paid by the Federal Government). She was a teen mom living in public housing practically on her own. Her mother was gone weeks at a time. When the mother did come home she would get mad, take the cell phone away, then leave again. The teen mom did not always have access to the outside world. When AtG met her and took her to lunch we were upset because she was only 17 so we really could not talk to her without her mothers permission. We helped her the best we could. We called the alternative high school to make sure she was going to be accepted. 2009 was on of the first years that there were NO daycares in any of the Davidson County high schools. In order for a teen mom to stay in school she really had to want it. In Davidson County a teen mom has to get their own DHS Families First case (the money portion of the government help, which unfortunately if you did not qualify for that would then mean NO daycare certificate, and NO daycare certificate meant NO school for the mom, in most cases). Luckily this mom did qualify, so she sent her child to daycare and drove herself to school (did I mention with no license, we helped her apply for a restricted license but it never came through, but she had to get to school and her child to daycare). We kept in touch the best we could but then lost touch due to her age being a factor.
Fast forward to August 2010.
AtG’s cell phone rang and it was her. She was alive and not so well but she was making it the best she could. She was now homeless. Her mother informed her now that she was 18 she was no longer going to keep the apartment and that this teen mom needed to find a new place to live while finishing her last year in High School. She did graduate from high school against the odds and is a very bright young lady. She loves to cheerlead and dance, but the realities of being a homeless teen parent overtook any chance of speaking into the lives of other teens at this time. She came to AtG’s offices in Nashville where Executive Director Meredith Kendall met with her and helped her get an interview with a company in Franklin that she knew was hiring. This company took a chance on her even though she was homeless and a single parent. She has been a good employee and seems to enjoy her job but the homeless part started to take its toll. She never knew where she and her now 2 year old daughter were going to stay that night. A friends house, a relative’s house, her grandparents house or her car.
On Sunday night September 19th she called upset. She did not know what to do. In order to stay at her grandparent’s house she had to use her hard earned monies to buy items for her Aunt and Uncle as payment to stay. As she called and explained this to AtG she said “I am done paying for their addictions”. So on Monday September 20th, AtG called a partnering agency to ask about this “emergency number” you could call with DCS not to take away a child but to get assistance. When the partnering agency called back they gave AtG the names and numbers but there are no funds for this type of help. All they will do is call other partnering agencies and try to get help.

So on Monday night September 20th, Rob and Meredith Kendall, founders of AtG took this homeless mother and her 2 year old daughter, to their personal home to spend the night. We had a family dinner and settled in for a good night.

At 9pm the mom came down with her daughter, she is hungry can she have something to eat please?

My heart broke to think we live in Middle Tennessee and when you think of “homelessness” you think of those living under a bridge, unshaven, alcoholic… but do you see this.

Help AtG be a part of the solution… we want to start our first home for single mothers and their children…. it has been a 7 year dream… it is time it became a reality. For more information contact AtG at 615-291-9532 or email at info@atghope.org