I strive for happiness, my own and that of my children. Seeing my children happy is the most important thing for me, and I want to see more of this! I also want them to see me doing my best and feel proud that I am their mother. For this, I'm undertaking a course as a teaching assistant and, further on, I plan to grow a career within the teaching sector. Maybe one day I'll be a full time teacher!
My children are my inspiration to go on this path. I've spent so many hours supporting them with their homework, seeing them learn, bit by bit. I have a lot of patience for this kind of work, which I've realised is so key to helping them learn. I know that I can do this for more children, supporting them through their studies and helping them to believe in themselves.
I'm a single mother of three, and I've been affected by the benefit cap. This means that I don't get enough money each month to pay for our house. To keep paying the rent, the Council is providing me with some temporary support. I'm taking the rest of the money out of other benefits - benefits meant to be used for food, transport, heating and all those things we need to live. Soon the Council's payments will stop, and I won't have enough to keep paying. I have all these things going on in the back of my mind, like background noise. Constant questions about where we're going to live and how I'm going to take care of the kids.
Beam are helping me to find a more stable situation. Even the short meetings I've had with them make me feel more hopeful about the future, and they've helped me to believe that I can achieve the change that I need in my life. I'm ready and I'm looking forward to starting this journey: learning, reading, writing, remembering and then putting it all into practice. I'm going to make my children proud!
Deborah is working with Beam because she is at risk of homelessness