For eight years, Tavia Dotson was a stay-at-home mom in an increasingly abusive marriage, but in 2023 she mustered the courage to leave her husband and find a safer home for her three children. She first moved in with her mother, but within a year her mother passed away. Struggling with grief, having nowhere else to turn, but determined to build a new life for her family, Tavia and her children came to Our House in October 2024, where she was one of the first families to move into our new Mabee Family House. Tavia got her older children, Talia and Devin, enrolled in Our Club, and her youngest daughter, Laniah, enrolled in Bright Beginnings, so she could focus on finding a job with help from the Career Center. But without much work experience to list on her applications, she had trouble finding a job, and thus she was a great candidate for our job training program. For the past three months she has thrived working at our Resale Store, building her customer service skills and getting a chance to use her creativity to help design displays and dress mannequins that show off the great products available in our store.
“I absolutely love working at the store. I love the people there. The store leaders are very busy, but them being busy makes me want to be busy. It’s so great working around people who want to work. It’s my happy place. I love my babies, but to have that adult time, when I’m getting things done, and I’m making money doing it, to support these three–it feels really good.”
Working at the resale store is just the first step on Tavia’s journey to a bright future for her family. She is planning to stay as long as she can at Our House, saving money, finding a career, supporting her children and making a plan for a stable future. “When I leave I want to be able to take care of my family on my own, with money coming in regularly, and savings to fall back on if something happens.”
