The Story of Cynthia

Better Way Detroit (BWD) often partners with employer coordinators at local homeless shelters to help residents find jobs and change their current situations.

One of these shelters is COTS Detroit, a permanent supportive housing facility offering emergency shelter, transitional and long-term housing, and comprehensive services to men, women and children overcoming homelessness.

Cynthia found herself and her son without a home after leaving an abusive relationship. She lived with family and friends for a little while but, ultimately, wanted her own space. That’s when she found COTS and moved into one of their apartment units in Midtown.

While living there, Cynthia met BWD operations manager Quiane Bates, who connected Cynthia with supervised job training at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. Cynthia said this training helped her develop skills and build out her resume.

“It’s an excellent program, and I’ve met wonderful people. You can tell their whole hearts are really into what they do. You don’t find many people like that,” Cynthia said.

From there, Cynthia knew she wanted to get a job helping others who were experiencing situations similar to hers. So, she started working at Central United Methodist Church and at CAM Detroit – helping connect people experiencing homelessness with access to housing resources.

“I’ve experienced homelessness but thank God for the people and organizations like COTS and BWD that helped make sure my family didn’t have to sleep on the streets. It’s important to me to make sure others don’t have to go through that either,” Cynthia said.

“That’s my main thing – giving back. When you see somebody who needs help, help them. If you can’t help them, give them resources to somewhere that can. You never know what someone is going through; you may be their one piece of positive.”