Story of Impact

“I kept hearing about it around my neighborhood. Wesley House this, and Wesley House that, so I asked my neighbor to bring me here, and I signed up my eldest daughter on the spot. After a couple of weeks, she fell in love with it! She enjoyed the tutoring, the reading program – they even taught her how to play the violin! Now both of my girls are at Wesley House. They’ve learned how to play instruments, they’ve taken cooking classes, they’ve gone to Dollywood and Pigeon Forge – things I wouldn’t have been able to afford if the Wesley House hadn’t provided them. They have retired teachers that come read to the kids, so my girls don’t have any issues with reading or keeping up in school. And even outside of the programs, the staff at Wesley House are so involved. If one of my girls has a dance competition or a volleyball game, they come out and support them.

You hear me talking about all these amazing things the Wesley House does for these kids, but it’s completely affordable. Before coming here, I was on the DHS program where they pay for your daycare, but I can afford Wesley House even without that voucher. And if somebody can’t afford to bring their kids here, they offer scholarships. They’ll make sure your child can come and do activities and go on trips, and they’ll make sure it’s no burden on the parents. It’s just a great place for parents to bring their children and for families to be involved. Every day my girls say, “don’t pick us up until later,” not because they don’t want to be home, but they just really enjoy being here so much.”

“I only have 8 weeks left to go, and I am so, so excited. This is my fourth child, but she’s my first little girl – and it’s my fiancé’s first child ever. So we’re both feeling a little nervous and new at this. My boys are 14, 13, and 9, so I feel like I’m having to prepare myself all over again since it’s been so long. Plus both mentally and with baby supplies, I’ve never prepared to have a girl before. That’s why the Pregnancy Center is so amazing. Whether it’s your first baby or your fourth, they help you through the process and make sure you’re ready no matter what.

I especially love that they have classes for both mothers and fathers – a lot of places offer classes for mothers, but it’s so important to my fiancé that he learns everything and is fully prepared for our little girl to get here. Learning skills and different parenting techniques has really built his self-esteem, and seeing him being involved makes me so happy! And it’s fantastic to get to learn everything together as parents.

Besides the classes and the support system, the Pregnancy Center also really helps us with baby supplies. They have all new items, nothing used, and they can help you figure out which car seats and strollers to order, too. Everyone here genuinely cares about the families they see and they want us to be prepared – and you don’t have to be Catholic to come here, either. It’s for anybody and everybody who needs help, and they’ll support you from the time you’re pregnant until the child is two years old. You get classes, and baby supplies, and parenting skills – but you also get a support system and community to lean on. And it’s wonderful.”

“I was actually on a waiting list for almost 6 months to get Sarah in – I had heard such great things, I knew I wanted her to come here. When we finally got in, she was still in foster care, so we had a foster care voucher to help cover daycare expenses, which was a huge help. What I didn’t know until closer to adoption, though, was that she is one of the 10% of foster kids that doesn’t receive any services after adoption. So the staff here talked to me about the scholarship they offer, and it was really a blessing because it got me from the voucher to another state program, which I have now. I used the scholarship for I think 4 or 5 months, but it was the biggest blessing. Obviously if I didn’t get the scholarship it wouldn’t have affected whether I would have adopted her or not, but it definitely would have put a strain on us. I probably would’ve had to ask my family for help, but it’s hard to do that when you’re an adult and “grown up,” you know.

And outside of the scholarship they offer, I just really love CCK (The Children’s Center of Knoxville). What immediately blew me away when we first started coming here was that by the third day, every single teacher knew her name. We’d walk down the hall and they’d greet us by name, and with all the kids here, the care they took to get to know us really impressed me. Sarah’s also really matured in her language and in her behavior. They even helped potty train her, which is a huge help when she’s this age. And it’s not like this is just a daycare, really – it’s more education focused, rather than just babysitting focused. The staff is so qualified and involved with both the kids and the parents – I just love working with them. We really love it here.”

“We had a family friend, someone we met through our church, and she’s the one who first introduced me to Thrive Lonsdale. We were refugees in Uganda for 6 years, so when we came to the United States 5 years ago, it was a big adjustment, and she wanted to help us find our place here and learn how to live the American life. She knew I was having a hard time settling in, and I was being bullied at school, so when I started coming to Thrive, I really loved it.

You get to have a lot of fun here, and they really try to put God into everything. When I was in the middle school program, we always had Bible studies, but I hated them at the time because I could’ve been doing homework or something more productive. But now looking back, it was really valuable because now I have lessons I learned from the bible studies that will stay with me for my whole life. And you get to have fun and do activities and field trips, but really the biggest thing is that you get to know what community means with people that are not necessarily your family. And I’ve made a lot of really good friends with the interns and the teachers here – I mean, really, Thrive has some of the greatest people I’ve ever met.”

“My name is Walter and I’m eleven. I’m about to be a Boy Scout, and I’ve been doing scouts for three years. I really like doing the camps and activities. We just learned how to use BB guns and slingshots. The camp we were at had a shooting range and they put up aluminum pans and taught us how to shoot and how to do everything really safely and stuff. It was a lot of fun. That’s probably my favorite activity we’ve done.

And Boy Scouts sell popcorn. The money from the popcorn helps pay for a lot of different stuff, like our activities, and it helps pay for our uniforms, too. The activities are always really fun, and we have really cool teachers that teach us about our projects and the history behind everything we do. And you make a lot of friends. In scouting I’ve definitely learned how to make friends, and to be prepared. That’s our motto.”