GBLS Helps Victim of Abuse and her Children Obtain Support and Stability

“Mary” is the mother of a 4- and 9-year-old and is a domestic violence survivor.  Her children’s father, who has a substance abuse problem, abused her.  She finally left him to ensure the children’s safety and stability.

Once away, Mary needed to focus on meeting her children’s needs — needs as basic as food, housing, clothes, and shoes — before being able to focus on finding a job.  Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) was fortunately there to provide the safety net so Mary could provide those necessities.

Mary was determined to use the education and training requirement imposed on TAFDC recipients to obtain the skills needed to acquire a job that would support her family, so she enrolled in and earned a degree in Practical Nursing.

Unfortunately, part-way through her training DTA terminated her benefits when her DTA worker failed to record Mary’s participation in her nursing program.  Mary turned to GBLS for help.  Her GBLS attorney, Lizbeth Ginsburg, was able to unearth the error and get her TAFDC reinstated.  In addition, on more than one occasion, DTA failed to respond to Mary’s requests for a child care referral, which she needed to obtain a voucher for subsidized child care.  Without it, Mary would not have been able to continue her nursing program.  Lizbeth was there to help in these instances.   

When Mary graduated from her Practical Nursing program, she emailed Lizbeth to tell her that “Things have been going well, I am going to take my NCLEX [National Council Licensure Examination] tomorrow to get my nursing license, then I will be able to move forward with getting a job and slowly but surely getting back on my own two feet.  It would not have been possible at all without your help!  …I know that you went above and beyond for me many times and I can not express how much that means to me.”

Recently, Mary emailed to say that she is “working like crazy” and is “so happy about it!”.  During the 2013 summer semester she also started taking some of the classes she needs to pursue her Registered Nursing degree.  Her benefits, TAFDC, SNAP (Food Stamps), and child care have been essential; without them, she wouldn’t have been able to take the steps necessary to start her nursing career.  

Your support ensured that Attorney Ginsberg was there to help.