Woman Moves From Welfare To Work With Shalom Denver

DENVER (CBS4)- One single mother moved from welfare to work thanks to some help from Shalom Denver.

Shalom Denver is a division of Jewish Family Service, a program that helps people help themselves.

Three years ago Heidi Pittaway was a single mother and eight months pregnant with her second child. She was living in a shelter in Parker with her 1-year-old daughter.

"I wanted to give up a lot. It was really hard, but my kids. They're really what motivated me to get out of bed when I was too tired to get out of bed, to go to school when I didn't want to go to school," said Pittaway.

She applied for food stamps and got on the "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF.

"When I got on TANF, they put me with Shalom. And Shalom are the people that helped me get my resume and they gave me classes on conflict resolution and interviewing," said Pittaway.

"We're just not using the regular curriculum, the regular book that we purchased. We're actually using real life experiences and we're building relationships with folks, so that they trust us and feel comfortable. That's what helps people to become self-empowered," said TANF Director Meeka Houston.

Last summer, Pittway landed an internship with the Better Business Bureau. Even though the BBB had no budget for new hires, they hired Pittaway anyway as the Assistant to the Vice President of Operations.

"I might still be in a homeless shelter or something like that, because how else is a single parent supposed to get their life together. And two, being able to get all this experience and get my degrees, is going to make me less likely to get on welfare in the future," said Pittaway.

Shalom Denver has helped more than 70 welfare recipients find work in the last seven months. That's more than any other program in the Denver metro area. Fifty percent of those served in the program are not Jewish.