“Steadfast, Remain Humble, Patience”: One Woman’s Mantra on the Road to Financial Stability
April is Financial Capability Month, and LISC is lifting up the stories of people who are forging greater economic stability with support from LISC’s Financial Opportunity Centers and Bridges to Career Opportunities programs. Shannettea Joseph is one of those people. The relationship she has built with her financial coach at North Lawndale Employment Network in Chicago has helped her overcome real hurdles: first, barriers to reentry after a prison term, and most recently, the financial fallout of the pandemic while caring for sick family members.
“It was a kick in the gut,” recalls Shannettea Joseph, about the early days of the COVID-19 crisis. Joseph had prayed that the pandemic wouldn’t hit close to home, but, like millions of Americans, she was laid off from her job in March 2020. Members of her family contracted the virus, including her mother, who is currently battling breast cancer, and her sister, the mother of a 10-month-old. While out of work, Joseph kept busy taking care of her mother, nephew, and 4-year-old daughter, but her future felt uncertain. She remembers thinking, “What am I going to do? Should I look for another job, or should I stay steadfast and patient?”
“Steadfast, Remain Humble, Patience”—this, in fact, is Joseph’s personal mantra, and captures her tenacity and commitment to creating the life she wants for herself and her daughter, London. Joseph first came to the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN) – a longtime LISC partner that offers both a Financial Opportunity Center and Bridges to Career Opportunities programs with support from Wells Fargo, Citi Foundation and MetLife Foundation – at the encouragement of her mother. Joseph had served seven years in prison and learned six weeks after her release in 2015 that she was expecting. “I was nervous," she recalls. "This was not part of my plan, to come [home] and have a baby, unprepared.” As a new mom, she faced barriers to reentry. “A lot of labels stuck to me. I started to believe what people were saying.”
Joseph took a leap of faith and in January 2019, completed NLEN’s U-Turn Permitted program, an accelerated job readiness institute for men and women returning from incarceration on felony convictions. For the first time since her release, she found a supportive community outside of her family that was committed to her success. Joseph began working with senior financial coach, Taneka Pernell, with whom she “developed a close sisterhood early on,” to gain the knowledge and skills she needed to manage her money effectively. She opened her first checking account and had her credit score pulled for the first time. After working briefly at a restaurant, she joined a local community center in June 2019 as a receptionist, a position that she quickly came to love.
But nine months later, she was laid off due to the pandemic. In July 2020, she received $700 from NLEN in emergency cash assistance for rent and groceries, providing a lifeline to her and her family during a period of great uncertainty.
Joseph was able to return to her job at the community center in September 2020 and continues to work with her coach on her financial goals, which include establishing credit, building savings for her daughter, and opening another bank account where she can put money aside for a down payment for a home.
Joseph is passionate about helping other women who have been incarcerated and aspires to go back to school to become a drug counselor. “I want to give my daughter experiences that I didn’t have,” she says, beaming with pride when she shares that London is at the top of her pre-K class and has received awards for perfect attendance. It’s clear that Joseph is laying the groundwork for her daughter to succeed. As her financial coach Taneka Pernell says, “whatever Shannettea sets her mind to, she’s going to get it done.”