Marie

Accommodation

Marie is the proud mother of six children. But five of her children are in care, leaving Marie with only Chilali to look after. 

Marie and Chilali were living in an intensive dormitory-style programme, but have now moved to a Salvation Army flat as a step towards greater independence. People can stay for up to half a year in the flats while doing life-skills programmes to help them integrate back into the community. A supervisor lives on site.

Furniture is provided and there are a range of practical courses aimed to improve life skills. Marie has just completed the positive lifestyle programme which covered issues like stress, loneliness, anger and depression, and boosted her self-esteem and assertiveness, and helped her set realistic goals. Other programmes include parenting, violence prevention and literacy.

Marie attends monthly meetings with current and former residents of the flats. The regular meetings provide an opportunity to share experiences and build up social networks.

Marie says she is enjoying the greater freedom that comes with living in the flat but at the same time likes to have help close at hand.

‘I feel good here,’ says Marie. ‘It feels homely and I feel welcome. I feel that I’m going in the right direction.’
 
Marie’s goal is to improve her parenting and life skills enough so that she can get her family back together.

‘Being on The Salvation Army programme will help me to make a case to show that I can look after my children and get custody back,’ says Marie.

‘If it was not for The Salvation Army then my daughter Chilali would not be here with me now and I would just be seeing her on visits.’