Alley’s House Summer of Empowerment provided young mothers five weeks of fun and education with book club, field trips to Klyde Warren Park, Dallas Museum of Art, and Aldi food store plus hands-on workshops to prepare them to return to school with parenting, college/career training, and life skills to enhance their support system.
These feats would not be possible without the support of workshop facilitators from AT&T, The Be Project, Dallas Woman’s Forum, Hope Cottage, Women Infant Children (WIC), and Alley’s House alumna Ashley Lindley. Pictured below is Alisa Thomas from AT&T, who led a workshop on Office & Professional Etiquette. This was a particularly unique experience as AT&T also brought along four of their high school and college summer interns to participate in the training.
Simone, an AT&T summer intern, said “The visit to Alley’s House was a great experience. Meeting with the teen mothers gave us a new perspective on the struggles of raising a family. The girls at Alley’s House were determined to create a better life for themselves and their families. Though they were a little shy, I felt their eagerness to learn more about the etiquette of the business world. Some of the girls were even professionally dressed and ready for the work environment. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and hoped the girls learned a lot! Through this experience these young ladies will be built for success and acquire great business skills. I wish them the best within this program and their future endeavors.”
Workshops like these make an enormous impact on our young moms as they prepare to navigate the working world. As Simone said, “Alisa’s presentation gave great insight on tools needed to be successful. The slide ‘The Ideal Employee’ covered the key points of what it takes to be successful at a business like AT&T. I will always remember that projecting confidence and staying on top of your game can help present yourself as a professional. Through this experience these young ladies will be built for success and acquire great business skills.” It sounds like all of our participants, interns and moms alike, learned a lot from Alisa!
Many of these young women will return to high school in the fall but some will join us to work on their GED during our fall semester. As we prepare for the fall semester, we are looking for professional facilitators to help lead our curriculum; learn more at http://alleyshouse.org/volunteer/. You can also support Alley’s House workshops by making a financial contribution at http://alleyshouse.org/donate/ to help ensure our moms have the necessary skills to become thriving women.
