Formerly homeless women make holiday crafts with Sacramento nonprofit. ‘Engaging and wonderful’
Around 200 women and children who have struggled with various forms of homelessness attended a holiday craft party Saturday in downtown Sacramento put on by the organization Women’s Empowerment.
For more than two decades, the organization has provided counseling and transitional housing along with its two-month employment-readiness and empowerment programs.
At the event, aided by the organization Soroptimist International of Greater Sacramento and a slew of volunteers, attendees rotated through tables where they made holiday crafts and had photos taken with Santa Claus. Participants were also able to select from gifts donated by local businesses, which were gift-wrapped by volunteers.
Rochelle Goodwin, a graduate of the program who sat with her 9-year-old son Devon designing a Christmas ornament, credits Women’s Empowerment with turning her life around after she escaped a domestic abuse situation.
”Coming to this craft party is such an extravagant experience,” Goodwin said. “I’m so used to people giving me store-bought gifts, and it’s the fact that you’re sitting here, you’re taking your time, you’re putting your effort and your creativity into the gift makes this such a special experience.
“Devon is autistic, and being with this many people, just the noise would normally be so overwhelming for him. But he’s so calm. It’s because of this community which is like a family, and because this event is so engaging and wonderful.”
Goodwin is currently living in a Women’s Empowerment transitional housing community with Devon and her older daughter Nichelle, an honor roll sophomore at McClatchy High School.
Goodwin credits the nonprofit with helping her family stabilize and giving her a clear sense of direction. While she currently is working in retail, she aspires to own her own home and hair braiding business.
“Everybody says it, when you meet me, you wouldn’t think that I went through the stuff that I went through. Yeah, it’s because I learned to love myself over you. It took me a year and a half to learn to love myself and know where I need to be with myself.”
With a 3- and 7-year-old in tow, Karen Sondheim is newer to the program. She says the empowerment group has helped her cope with unimaginable grief when she lost her youngest, an 18-month-old child, in a tragic accident several months ago.
Sondheim said she has always had a solid job history, but became overwhelmed after losing her daughter and has been staying with various relatives. She says the job training and counseling support she has received has been invaluable, especially during the holidays when she feels her daughters Cheyenne and Natasha need her.
“They say it takes a community to raise a child, well this is our little community, and I’m so grateful,” she said.
