Echoes of empathy:

WORDS : KRISTINA HEIN LANDIN PHOTOGRAPHY : MIKE SMITH

“It’s too late for me,” Rose said to Ashley Littlewolf with tears in her eyes. The two moms locked eyes for a moment before Littlewolf glanced down at Rose’s son playing quietly nearby and thought of her own daughter at that age.

“I can relate to the stories of my clients, because I have been there too,” says Ashley Littlewolf, who works as a career coach helping moms like Rose see a better future.

As a little girl growing up on the Leech Lake Reservation, Littlewolf’s family lived paycheck to paycheck with little hope, and for Littlewolf, it seemed like living in survival mode would be a never-ending cycle. Driven by the determination to make a difference, she became a first generation college student which led her to her job as a career coach.

Here in our community, one in nine people live in poverty, which is defined as a family of four living on less than $26,200 a year. Locally, this equates to 30,000 of our neighbors who struggle to support their families. Poverty is even more common in children under five, with one in seven in our community living in poverty.

Lack of support and opportunity often passes from one generation to the next — making children more likely to live in poverty as adults. Without help and intervention, such as a career coach, this cycle of poverty continues for generations, impacting us all as a community.

A little over a year ago, Rose was a single parent working a full-time job and struggling to pay rent and provide enough food for her family — all while juggling distance learning with three children. She had nearly given up hope.

That’s when she met her career coach, Littlewolf, who encouraged her to pursue a career as a certified nursing assistant. While there are plenty of jobs available in our community, barriers like child care, job training, a stable home, and even hunger often stand in the way of moms like Rose and the opportunities for careers that can support their families. Littlewolf walked alongside Rose and was there to cheer her on as she proudly passed her certification test. Today, Rose works at a local senior care facility caring for dementia patients in a high-demand career. Each day is filled with hope and opportunity, knowing her children will have a better future.

“Every day I wake up I am so happy to go to work and to know that my kids are cared for — that is the most important thing to me,” says Rose.

Career coaches are just one of the ways that United Way of Cass-Clay is uniting our community to lift families out of poverty. When you give to United Way, you can be a part of the echoes of empathy that are connecting moms like Rose with life-changing career coaches like Littlewolf. When we invest in and support each other, we can create a better tomorrow for all of us.