Rachael’s Story: Starting a new career to support her family

Rachael is excited to start a career in a field she’s passionate about and show her children that hard work pays off. Having nearly completed training and looking ahead to a career she loves, she feels hopeful for the first time since suddenly becoming a single parent and needing to provide for herself and her four children.

“Before the divorce, my husband had made it clear he wanted me to stay home all the time with the kids, and I wasn’t going back to school until they were out of the house,” shares Rachael. Her children are ages 10, 8, 5 and 3. “So when he all of the sudden left, it was like… here we go … I had no career to fall back on when it was suddenly just me and my kids.”

“At the time I was thinking, ‘How do people do this? I’m not the first person this has happened to. How do people do it?’”

“I was doing a bunch of research to find ways to go back to school or get some sort of apprenticeship or work-from-home job. I was looking at every avenue I could to get myself and my kids back up on our feet.”

That’s when Rachael discovered Avivo’s Minnesota Family Resiliency Program, which supports caretakers and homemakers who are suddenly forced to provide for themselves.

“I was grateful that this Avivo program exists … It felt good to talk out the options, and know there was somebody or something there, so I could take a breath.”

“I was grateful that this Avivo program exists,” shares Rachael. “It felt good to talk out the options, and know there was somebody or something there, so I could take a breath.”

With help from Avivo staff, Rachael decided to pursue training to become a licensed birth doula. She’s excited about that career path and interviewed recently for an internship with a local organization that pairs doulas with women.

“It’s awesome that I’ll have this career and be able to support women the way they want to be supported, which is really important to me.”

Beyond finding a job in her new career, Rachael hopes to be a positive role model for her children.

“I want to show my kids that hard work pays off,” she says. “I’m excited to have this opportunity to have a job in a field that I’m passionate about, and that it happened a lot sooner than I was planning in life.”