Tina Williamson was born in 1979 and grew up “dirt poor” on the west side of Indianapolis. She was a good student, but did not graduate from high school. Instead, at the age of 16, Tina delivered Kyla, her daughter, and then dropped out of school in order to raise Kyla on her own. In 1999, less than a month after moving into the home she’d saved for years to buy, it flooded. Although Tina married in 2002; her husband’s ability to help support the family is limited by his struggles with lymphoma and a serious neck injury he suffered in an automobile accident.

In December 2005, Tina came to the Hawthorne Community Center for Christmas assistance and learned about CICF’s Family Success Initiative. “I heard about this program that asks, ‘What can we do to make your family more successful and you more successful for your family?’” Tina joined the program in early 2006. To her delight she learned the program could help her advance her education. “When I started seeing how I could get grants and other kinds of financial help, I actually got up out of my seat and danced,” she exclaims. Today Tina Williamson is a senior at Marian College, less than a year away from earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management.

Working with her Hawthorne Center “coach,” Tina created a plan featuring personal, family and community goals. Education was one goal, spending time with her daughter another. Greater neighborhood involvement was her third. Time is precious for Tina, but she’s learned what Kyla really wants is her involvement. “Before the Family Success program I might have taken her skating, but I would just drop her off. I didn’t know how much she wanted me to be a part of it,” Tina says. Over time she has learned to share herself with Kyla, even if only for a few minutes, and calls their relationship “great.” Together, they even organized a fitness program at the Hawthorne Center as part of Tina’s neighborhood involvement goal.

The Family Success Initiative helped Tina achieve each of her goals. It also helped her with her closing costs on a home and gave her something she never knew she was missing: “The program gives you that push. A lot of common people like me don’t get that – they don’t have that opportunity,” she says. Although Tina already has graduated from the Family Success Initiative, she says it continues to make a difference in her life. “I’ve learned to see opportunities now, and to take advantage of them,” she explains.

Make a Difference!
Your gift to the Family Success Initiative helps people and their families achieve the long-term stability and self-sufficiency they need to overcome obstacles created by generations of poverty. As your trusted philanthropic advisor, CICF can help you create a simple, powerful approach for supporting this initiative—and the successful people and communities it’s creating. For more information, please call Rob MacPherson, CICF’s vice president for development, at 317.634.2423.

Photo by Joe Woods.