Holly – an awesome role model for her children

After 10 years in a relationship and with a young family, Holly found herself alone and in financial stress.  From living a comfortable life, she started to struggle to make ends meet, without any financial help from her former partner.  Her support worker at Early Start, one of Kingdom Resources’ referral partners, recommended she connect with a Kingdom Resources’ financial mentor.

“My mentor put me at ease right away and I felt like I wasn’t drowning any more. Together we did a budget, and she advocated for me with IRD as they’d overpaid me and connected me with a therapist,” explained Holly.

Lacking in confidence and self-esteem, her mentor recommended Holly start the free confidence, pre-employment course at Kingdom Resources, “Taking the First Step”.  “I was feeling at rock bottom at that point of my life.  I was so nervous on my first day but decided to put my whole heart into it and it was wonderful,” said Holly.

She started the course feeling worthless. “I felt embarrassed for my children that they had a mother like me and that they deserved better,” she said. The course was pivotal to changing this perception, as the tutor helped the class into a journey of self-discovery, identifying their strengths and passions. “I came out of the course thinking, wow I can actually do something with my life and I’m not an embarrassment to my children, I’m a good role model.”

After the course Holly decided to retrain and amazingly managed to juggle four children and gain a Human Resources degree and has just finished a post-graduate course. Today she is also a guest speaker for the “Taking the First Step” course, inspiring other women to have hope for the future.