A hand-up, not a hand-out.
That\’s the goal of every social service agency that reaches out to the people suffering in poverty.
Years ago when the Mission of Hope partnered with the Morgan-Scott Project to bring help and hope to a single mother struggling to survive, that indeed was a hand-up.
In 2008, Phylllis Holcomb and her two teenage sons lived in a borrowed house she described as a shack. She lived on food stamps and a few extra dollars her mother was able to provide. She barely had enough money to pay for gas to school where she was studying to be a licensed practical nurse.
It was November and she knew she needed help to give her sons Christmas presents.
\”I\’d be thankful, but at the same time it\’s kind of a sad feeling. Because I\’m so used to providing. But it\’s better than them not having nothn.\’ Like last year. Last year was the saddest of all years,\” said Holcomb back then.
The Mission of Hope came with Christmas gifts that year, and that was the beginning of better times for Phyllis and her family.
A year later, she graduated as a licensed practical nurse.