Abigail’s story

Imagine you’re a mother with two small daughters both under the age of five and you’ve been forced to move your family from house to house, over and over again, and there’s no end to this scenario in sight.

Imagine your family has been uprooted so many times, you feel no surprise at a notice to vacate your current “home” within three days?

As a parent, how would you feel? How would you survive, let alone provide stability for your children?

For Abigail, a routine doctor’s appointment two years ago marked the beginning of an entirely new future for her family.  

Neighboring the doctor’s office was a Matrix Head Start center, where she spotted other families enrolling their children in the program. It was a perfect opportunity for her daughters to spend the day in a learning environment while allowing Abigail time to work on herself. Abigail suffers from extreme anxiety that often prevented her from doing projects or taking care of things on her own. This issue left her unemployed and her goals unachieved.

Because Matrix supports not just children, but the whole family, Abigail began working with Matrix Family Advocate, Saba Muzib while her children received a quality education at our Matrix Head Start Center.

Saba began to identify programs and resources that would help Abigail achieve new goals for her family. Eager to implement, Abigail requested she and Saba meet weekly instead of the traditional monthly check-in. Saba understood the severity of Abigail’s anxiety and she began to accompany her to agency visits and appointments to further assist Abigail in reaching her goals.

“At first, I was a little nervous, but Saba was very welcoming and friendly. It made things so much easier for me,” said Abigail.

Saba with Abigail in front of her new home.

“Saba was able to assist me and go with me to do certain things I needed to do when I was too nervous or scared to do them by myself. She was kind of like a coach for me throughout the first year [I worked with Matrix].”

Together, they made a plan to achieve one of Abigail’s greatest goals: a home to call her own.  

In working together, Abigail and Saba realized Abigail would soon have some financial resources available to her to purchase a home from the Detroit City Auction.

With Saba’s support to navigate the process, Abigail purchased her first home two years ago. She and her family moved into their 1,200 square foot, 3 bedroom home this past year.

Now Abigail and her family have a house to finally call home.   

“Having our own home gives us stability and security. Knowing it’s ours and no one can tell us to leave or what we can or cannot have. It’s somewhere that’s ours. We’re planted somewhere now, and it really helps my family a lot to have that stability.”