"Where single parents write their own success stories"

Success Stories

ROWAN'S STORY

Warren Village gave Rowan the opportunity for a better life. Now, Rowan gives other women that same chance.

Rowan works at a Denver daytime drop-in center for homeless and low-income women and children. As a case manager, Rowan will help 20 women find affordable housing this year. Rowan has a unique ability to fight poverty and homelessness. She's experienced it.

In 2004, Rowan made the decision to separate from her son's alcoholic father. She would raise her son Zander on her own. After considering her options, Rowan realized that even if she worked full-time, she would still need another job to pay for Zander's childcare. She discovered Warren Village, and even though family and friends were still offering her a place to stay, she chose to move into the program.

"In order for me to become the person I wanted to be and to be self-sufficient, I had to stop relying on others and do it myself," Rowan says.

Zander was only seven months old when he and his mom moved into Warren Village in May of 2004. Rowan worked a little as a waitress until she started school the following fall. That summer gave her and Zander the opportunity to spend quality time together-something she would not have had without Warren Village.

"We bonded in such an amazing way," Rowan says. "I don't think we would have if I had just been working as many hours as I could in a day. That was honestly the best summer of my life, getting to spend every day with [Zander]."

Three months later, Rowan enrolled at University of Colorado at Denver, majoring in psychology and anthropology. As a student, she became interested in poverty and how society view people in poverty, including herself.

"I guess you could say that I made it my personal mission to alter people's perception of single mothers who rely on government assistance to get a new start in life," Rowan writes in her employment biography.

As a Warren Village resident, Rowan became more involved in the program, serving as a member of the Giving Circle, a philanthropic committee, and serving on LEAD, a council of residents. She also enrolled her son Zander in the Warren Village Learning Center, where he stills attends.

"It's the first and only childcare he's ever had, so it's been a constant with him," Rowan says. "He's able to grow and transition with his classmates. It's key that he is in an environment set up for learning."

It was actually one of Zander's Learning Center teachers who recommended the drop-in center to Rowan, when she was looking at internships for school. Rowan did a six-month internship with the center before she graduated with her two bachelor's degrees in December of 2005. The drop-in center offered her a three-month position, then moved her up to part-time. She now works full-time at the organization, putting to use her experience at Warren Village and her newfound passion for social justice.

Rowan moved out of Warren Village in May of 2006, and found affordable, non-subsidized housing for her and Zander. Her time at Warren Village has become invaluable to her work and to her own self-sufficiency.

"Warren Village allowed me to finish school," Rowan says. "It allowed me to bond with some of my neighbors and other women going through similar things. It was huge. The person it helped me become is remarkable, just in my resourcefulness and ambition."

Rowan's future ambitions include one day becoming a homeowner and going to graduate school. She will continue assisting with Denver's Road Home-Mayor John Hickenlooper's 10 year plan to end homelessness. Her goal, she says, "is to continue to become more involved and entrenched in the community and in helping women gather their strength, and realize their potential and worth."

She goes on to say, "Besides being a stay-at-home mom, this is the most useful thing I could do with myself."