Eighteen months ago, Brandi(cq) Kelly was at the end of her rope.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles resident had moved her little daughter from homeless shelter to homeless shelter for two-and-a-half years, ever since they lost their home when Kelly\u2019s mother was shot and killed in a random act of violence. Kelly\u2019s mother held the lease, and Brandi Kelly was unemployed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I wasn\u2019t a good mother,\u201d says\u00a0Brandi, now 27, of those difficult years. \u201cI felt like I couldn\u2019t provide for my daughter. Nobody was lifting me up or motivating me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In March 2013, the congenial young woman learned she had gotten a much-coveted spot at the Menlo Family Apartments\u2014KYCC\u2019s latest affordable housing building; she and Brielle moved into their new home in April 2013. The Menlo Family Apartments offer comprehensive social services on the ground floor, including job training, mental-health counseling and afterschool tutoring.<\/p>\n
Menlo was literally a lottery ticket to a better life for Brandi and Brielle. Part of the application process was entering a housing lottery.<\/p>\n
It was a well-deserved break. From August 2010 to March 2013, she battled depression, unemployment and drug abuse. She and Brielle, who was 4 in 2010, moved from shelter to shelter in South Los Angeles, which disrupted\u00a0Brielle\u2019s\u00a0early schooling.<\/p>\n
Brandi was born to a 16-year-old mother, grew up in Watts, and\u00a0her father wasn\u2019t around much. She had a lisp, and because the speech impediment was classified as a learning disability, she was put in Special Education classes for all of her public-school years. If there had been a good, free tutoring program in her community, it would have made a big difference for her, she said.<\/p>\n
She enrolled her daughter in\u00a0Menlo\u2019s afterschool tutoring program in\u00a0the fall of 2013. At the end of October, the then-second grader could read only nine words a minute. But by early January, she could read fifty words a minute. The tutoring was instrumental in Brielle\u2019s progress, says\u00a0Jennifer Enani(cq), Brielle\u2019s second-grade teacher at Leo Politi(cq) Elementary School in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed a huge jump in her reading,\u00a0writing and confidence,\u201d Enani says.<\/p>\n
Brielle, 8,\u00a0describes how her teacher at Menlo\u2019s afterschool program, Sungbok Lee, coached her in reading.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said a word first, then I would say the word second,\u201d Brielle recalls.<\/p>\n
Brandi\u2019s\u00a0transformation was also remarkable. Cristina Zu\u00f1iga, Resident Advocate at Menlo, refers residents who are low-income to social services and resources. Seeing that Kelly needed extra help, Zu\u00f1iga became her mentor and friend. In weekly meetings that went above and beyond Zu\u00f1iga\u2019s job description,\u00a0the Resident Advocate helped Brandi set goals and learn independent living skills. She also linked Brandi up with a resident psychotherapist to deal with the pain of losing her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see everybody succeed here,\u201d Zu\u00f1iga\u00a0said. \u201cI want it to be a success story for a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Brandi is taking English and technology classes at Los Angeles City College. She\u00a0hopes to one day earn a bachelor\u2019s degree. She\u00a0also wants to become a social worker and help others from disadvantaged backgrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are not a lot of free programs out there that help a lot,\u201d she says, \u201cso I want people to take advantage of this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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