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Baltimore Organization Helping Fathers, Families with Sustainable Employment, Life Skills | The Washington Informer

Baltimore Organization Helping Fathers, Families with Sustainable Employment, Life Skills | The Washington Informer Twenty years ago, Christy Lee Shockley was a single mother living in a shelter and unable to keep a job. The trauma she had experienced in her childhood caught up to her and she needed support to realize her potential.

Christy Lee Shockley, Center for Urban Families, STRIVE Baltimore, Baltimore, Baltimore Families, Black Families, KOLUMN Magazine, KOLUMN, KINDR'D Magazine, KINDR'D, Willoughby Avenue



In 1998, Shockley saw her chance and bravely enrolled in the first cohort of the Center for Urban Families’ STRIVE Baltimore program, where she learned the necessary skills for work, like how to dress for work, how to smile and be present, and how to advocate for professional growth.

And it worked.

Twenty years later, Shockley holds three college degrees, is excelling at work as a government executive, and has three children with her husband of 20 years.

Even more, she has taken lessons learned from STRIVE and her own experiences to mentor young women who face the challenges she once did, according to a news release issued by the Center along with the organization’s 2018 Impact Report.


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