Elisabeth first became part of the VIP family when she brought her young daughter into the VIP medical clinic. The little girl had been brave enough to tell her mother that her step-brother had been sexually abusing her, and Elisabeth knew she had to get her as much help as she could. The family spent a year in therapy and during that time Elisabeth realized that she needed to take action to make a better life for herself and her 4 children.

At that time, for Elisabeth, that meant finding not just a job to make ends meet but a career to support her family for a lifetime. She shared with VIP that she wanted to go to nursing school, and once she was accepted to a school the Change A Life Foundation provided her a grant to cover the tuition. A little overwhelmed but extremely determined, Elisabeth set off on this new adventure.

Just as she and her children were moving forward, tragedy struck again when Elisabeth learned that her husband was now abusing her children. She packed up the kids, left her husband, and took refuge with her parents. She brought the children back to VIP, the place she felt safe and confident. When the Department of Children and Family Services received the new abuse report, they stepped in and ordered the children be permanently placed with the grandparents and removed from Elisabeth’s custody. The young mother was devastated. They ordered her to take parenting classes and undergo counseling in order to get her kids back. Everyone, including her teachers, told her it might be best to drop out of school, that she would never be able to do it all.

Instead, Elisabeth became her own best advocate. She requested that she be able to complete her therapy here at VIP and was diligent in her attendance. She worked with case managers to find housing and the financial support she would need. She spent as much time as she could with her kids at her parents’ house, and she never missed a class. She was a fixture in the VIP Education Center with her textbooks and notes.   “I was going to school for my kids,” Elisabeth says about why she couldn’t give up. “It was really scary, but I got my kids back.”

Once reunited, Elisabeth and her kids continued therapy here at VIP. She joined a group session for parents of children who have been sexually abused. She has been able to hear from other parents who are struggling with the same issues she is, and be an inspiration to other mothers who think that they cannot leave their abusers for fear of not being able to take care of themselves and their children.

And now everything is about to change again for Elisabeth and her family. She just recently passed her licensing exam and will soon be starting a new full-time job as a nurse at a nursing home. No one is more excited than her daughter, who guarded her mother’s study time and was her biggest cheerleader along the way. “It makes me proud to know that she is proud of me,” Elisabeth shares with a smile.