The Feece family enjoying the holidays

A little more than a month after she got married, Dawn Feece came home from work to an apartment emptied of everything with any value. Her husband had left and, along with their furnishings, had taken all the money from their bank account. Two weeks later, the engine in Dawn’s car exploded. Then her daughters’ bikes were stolen.

Ms. Feece remembers, "Because my husband had emptied our account, all the checks I had sent for the bills bounced. Then came the end of the month and rent was due, and my check from the previous month had bounced. I told my neighbor I didn’t know what I was going to do because I didn’t have any money. She said, ‘You need to call Humble Area Assistance Ministries (HAAM).'

"I went to HAAM and talked with a counselor. She explained their program called Working Toward Self-Sufficiency, and I signed up. If it weren’t for that program, my children and I would have been homeless.

"HAAM not only kept me from being homeless, they enabled me to catch up. They paid the first month’s rent in full, then paid 80 percent the next month, then 60 percent and in declining order from there.

"HAAM also helped out with groceries. They knew I worked late, so they actually set the bags at their back door so I could pick them up after work at night. That extra bit of effort on their part meant a huge amount to my kids and me."

The program also included required classes. Ms. Feece explains, "I learned about nutrition and money management. The woman who taught the budgeting class was fantastic and knew we didn’t have stocks, bonds, CDs. She understood we were in emergency situations.

"And what a difference good eating habits make in a child’s life. All of us in the nutrition class said, ‘We’d love to do this, but here’s our budget for food.’ The instructor showed us how to make it happen. I changed the way I shop for groceries, and I’m not spending any more money.

"The entire program at HAAM is really great because you never feel like you’ll be left hanging. It didn’t bail you out that one time and then in two weeks you were stuck again. It really helped us get back on our feet."

Now Ms. Feece works overtime at her job, directs an art program as a volunteer at her daughters’ school and creates and caters children’s parties on the side. She says, "I’ve always worked, but we struggled. Before my husband left, for the first time in my life I was saving a little bit of money. I was very angry when all that happened to me. But besides getting me back on my feet, HAAM helped me realize it’s not always bad, that there is a lot of good."

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