Jail or high school diploma? It seems like an easy decision.
Climb CDC and Open Doors Homeless Coalition made that decision easier for Keanna Penman.
Penman, 20, had been in and out of jail several times on drug charges. The high-school dropout was facing a longer stretch, but the YouthBuild program at Climb Community Development Corporation in Gulfport, Miss., offered her a way out.
“Without Miss Shellie and this Climb program, as well as the housing program, I wouldn’t be anywhere,” Penman said. “I’d probably be in jail, honestly.”
Instead, she has received her high school diploma and is studying to become a certified nursing assistant.
She hopes her story will serve as an inspiration to others facing similar challenges.
‘Miss Shellie’ is Climb’s YouthBuild Program Workforce Counselor Shellie Carter. YouthBuild is a community-based alternative education and job training program for at-risk youth age 16-24.
“She just kind of humbled herself and came to us and said, ‘I’m facing time right now and I really want to change my life’,” Carter said.
“I’ve had a lot of health issues, a lot of jail problems, a lot of abuse problems in relationships. I’ve been through it all,” Penman said.
“So if I can do that, and I’m about to graduate, and I’ve got through all of my court problems, you can do that,” she said a week before her August graduation ceremony. “It’s not hard. You just have to keep a steady head, stay focused. Stay out of trouble.”
Penman is not very different from other clients that come to Climb said Carter.
“They face any obstacle in life that you can think of,” Carter said. “Whether it be a split parent home, children of incarceration, children of addicts…And we accept them just the way they are.”
“I don’t care what their background is,” she said. “That’s the past. We try to tell them to focus on the future and what can you do to change the direction your life is going in?”
Stable housing makes a difference
One of Penman’s challenges was housing.
“She was couch surfing, living couch to couch, place to place,” Carter said. “And we helped connect her with the resources through our Rapid Rehousing for our youth program.”
Carissa Corbett runs that program for Climb.
“She didn’t know where the next meal would come from and where she would lay her head the next night,” Corbett said. “And so once we got her housed, some of the services that we helped her with was getting back into school and being able to get her high school diploma.”
Having stable housing was key for Penman to move on to a more positive life.
“It is amazing,” Penman said of her apartment. “It feels at home. You don’t have to worry about anyone stealing from you or anything you do. Just, you have your own space. You cook whatever you want.”
“And now she’s no longer couch surfing,” Carter said. “And she has got a road map, basically, for her life, where she was and where she wants to be.”
“In the past year, the Rapid Rehousing program has helped 28 people find housing and transition to a more safe and secure environment,” said Climb Executive Director John Whitfield.
“We get them off the street and into housing,” Corbett said. “We’re currently housing 13 people and we were only supposed to have six. So the program is phenomenal.”
Climb offers opportunities to youth
Climb CDC is a workforce training institute that provides job skills training in construction, culinary arts, hospitality, conservation and medical assistant fields while working on their high school diploma or GED.
There is also a drop-in center that provides a safe place for youth to be during the day. Whitfield said the facility offers access to computers, phone chargers and life-skills training.
“They can do whatever they choose in order to better themselves and better position themselves to be successful in society and in the workplace environment,” he said.
Their location in West Gulfport puts them in the middle of a low-income community that has its share of at-risk youth.
“The housing is needed,” Corbett said. “You know, we have a lot a lot of youth that’s in need of assistance.”
The program can transform lives “from not knowing where they’re going to stay that night, from being in a car, to actually having their own place and being in the comfort of their home,” she said.
“What we have found is that once you can place someone in a safe and secure environment, they are more likely to be successful,” said Whitfield.
“Because (with stable housing) there’s a toll taken off of their shoulders,” Corbett explained.
“I don’t have to worry about none of the negative things,” Penman said. “it’s all positivity when you have your own space. You’re just more free. You have more space,” which is especially good for Penman and her two dogs.
“Me and my dogs are happy. They’re gaining weight. They’re fed. I’m eating good. I’m in my bed, comfortable every day,” she said with a smile.
Penman has ambitions to become a hip-hop recording star. But if that doesn’t work out, she hopes to eventually become a travel nurse or possibly go into cosmetology.
“All those problems…I don’t have to worry about that anymore,” she said.
