When Nicole Roundtree lost her cleaning job at the Milwaukee County Secure Juvenile Detention Center in June, she and her 2-year-old son Elijah ended up living in her car. For more than five months, the pregnant 29-year-old mother searched for shelter and work without success.
Finally in early December, she found Nia Imani Family Inc., Milwaukee’s only long-term transitional living facility for homeless women and children, through an online search.
“When we moved in, my son and I were extremely happy. We got to sleep after months and months of pain and depression. We finally got to get some sleep,” repeated Roundtree, who was sick with respiratory ailments for much of that time.
After more than 20 years providing shelter and a structured program that teaches life skills and supports a path to independence, Nia Imani is changing its focus. Having worked with homeless mothers of all ages and circumstances, Belinda Pittman-McGee, founder and executive director, has come to believe that young first-time mothers and their children benefit most from the program.
Pittman-McGee also plans to expand Nia Imani’s influence beyond the 13 mothers it can house by opening Nia Umoja, a community outreach center for nonresident mothers. Nia, Imani and Umoja are Swahili words for purpose, faith and unity, three of the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
[For more of this story, written by Andrea Waxman, go to http://milwaukeenns.org/2016/0...-first-time-mothers/]
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