Mom’s choice of career education at Avivo leads family out of homelessness
After losing everything, becoming homeless, and needing to start over, Takeerah saw that the only way to push her life forward and take care of her family was to go to school and get training for a career. A year later, she and her family have an apartment and she is working in a career she loves!
About two years ago, Takeerah, together with her husband and two daughters, lost their home to severe storms. They came to Minnesota to live with her father. Her decision to go back to school rather than work did not sit well with him. He kicked the family out. Homeless, they moved into Mary’s Place, a family shelter with transitional housing located in Minneapolis.
“I have had so many different jobs. My favorite was [being] a school bus driver,” she shares, smiling. “Students would request me, [saying] ‘We want the fun bus driver!’”
“I couldn’t work jobs where I was standing on my feet,” adding that she worked as a manager of a Panera Bread location. “All my options for work like that were taken away… my legs would give out.”
At Mary’s Place, she was connected to another provider that helped her research schools and programs. That is how she found the Information Technology (IT) Training Program at Avivo Institute for Career & Technical Education.
“[Choosing] school was the first time I made a decision for me. I didn’t see any other way to push my life forward,” she shares.
According to Takeerah, Avivo’s school experience was life-changing. “I have never met two people who care about their students like [instructors] Mickey and Bill. [It] made me feel different about humanity.”
According to Takeerah, Avivo’s school experience was life-changing. “I have never met two people who care about their students like [instructors] Mickey and Bill. [It] made me feel different about humanity.”
She completed the IT Training Program in six months. Even when she had to spend time in the hospital midway through the program, her instructor, Dana, did everything possible to help her complete the course on time. She was also invited to return to work as a paid IT intern at Avivo’s school.
Not only did the internship further her skills in the field, the income, also combined with wages her husband was earning part-time, helped them move out of the shelter they had been living in for nine months. “My daughter ran from one end of the open apartment to the other, excited to have so much more room,” Takeerah shares, as she recalls moving into their own place.
“My daughter ran from one end of the open apartment to the other, excited to have so much more room.”
Next, she received help to create a resume and practice interviewing. As she applied for jobs, it was hard for her to imagine leaving the “Avivo family”, the staff and a fellow classmate who’d become a close friend. She decided to review Avivo’s career openings and found a position that was a match for her computer skills. After interviewing competitively for the position, she was hired as a data systems coordinator for one of Avivo’s mental health services teams.
In addition to working full time, she has recently enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program in Psychology at Capella University.
“Avivo changed my life. I am so grateful I chose the right place to go!”