{"id":70273,"date":"2017-06-30T02:26:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T16:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/?post_type=news-and-publication&p=70273"},"modified":"2022-05-09T02:27:58","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T16:27:58","slug":"rachels-story-facing-the-future-with-confidence","status":"publish","type":"news-and-publication","link":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/news-and-publications\/stories-of-hope\/rachels-story-facing-the-future-with-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel\u2019s story: Facing the future with confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"\"When Rachel* first visited Wesley Family Centre, Quakers Hill, she was feeling hopeless. Before becoming pregnant, she had worked full time in disability services, but this was a distant memory. Her son Ryan, now a teenager, suffers from chronic health problems and autism, and caring for him since his birth forced Rachel out of the workforce.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ve only had the occasional paid job because my life has had to revolve around Ryan\u2019s needs,\u201d Rachel said. Her greatest wish for the future is to have a full-time job, a dream that she has been unable to achieve for the past 15 years.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Life went from difficult to chaotic when Rachel\u2019s partner abandoned the two of them, leaving Rachel with a lease she could not possibly afford to pay alone, which quickly put her into debt and under extreme financial stress.<\/p>

Then, Rachel met Case Worker Justine Hanna. Justine supported Rachel by accompanying her to meetings with the real estate agent, giving her access to food vouchers and even helping her move. But when Rachel escaped the lease she could not afford, things became even worse. She and her son Ryan briefly became homeless and spent five difficult weeks in constantly changing emergency accommodation.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s really tiring being homeless and broke. You\u2019re dragging your burdens around with you all the time because every place you go, you have to repeat your story over and over again to get some help,\u201d Rachel recalls.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Despite the setbacks and frustrations, Rachel kept persevering, and with Justine\u2019s help, she was able to secure a new home for herself and Ryan. She was also able to pay back most of her debt by using vouchers for their utilities and food. She\u2019s even working towards that dream of a full-time job, by completing a TAFE course in social services.<\/p>

Rachel is thankful for how her son Ryan handled this very difficult time in their lives. \u201cIt\u2019s been a real learning curve in terms of knowing what Ryan is capable of. He\u2019s opened up more, he\u2019s grown through this, and I\u2019m really proud of him,\u201d she said.<\/p>

*Photo and name have been changed.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Rachel* first visited Wesley Family Centre, Quakers Hill, she was feeling hopeless. Before becoming pregnant, she had worked full …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":70274,"parent":29713,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","advanced-sidebar-menu\/link-title":"","advanced-sidebar-menu\/exclude-page":true},"ceo-newsletter":[],"move-to-top-of-sidebar":[],"custom-layouts":[680],"exclude-from-nav":[632],"news-and-publications-tags":[629],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-06 18:01:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"custom-layouts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publication\/70273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-and-publication"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publication\/70273\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publication\/29713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ceo-newsletter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ceo-newsletter?post=70273"},{"taxonomy":"move-to-top-of-sidebar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/move-to-top-of-sidebar?post=70273"},{"taxonomy":"custom-layouts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom-layouts?post=70273"},{"taxonomy":"exclude-from-nav","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exclude-from-nav?post=70273"},{"taxonomy":"news-and-publications-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wesleymission.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-and-publications-tags?post=70273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}