http://ipraudio.interlochen.org/NikiaParker.mp3
The Traverse Poverty Reduction Initiative hosts a free, one-day "opportunity conference" for people who want help getting out of poverty. It's Tuesday. Find more information here.
Today, Interlochen Public Radio starts a new, occasional series on people finding a way out of poverty. In northern Michigan today these are folks beating the odds. Despite a concerted effort in the Grand Traverse Region to reduce poverty since 2004, numbers are up 30 percent.
We start with the story of Nikia Parker. Her education has put poverty in the rear view. Put it that way, it sounds so easy. But Nikia Parker would tell you getting an education as a poor, working mom was anything but.
Too Much
"I working these crazy hours trying to make ends meet because, we, you know, I had rent and all these bills and car insurance," she remembers back to the second semester of nursing school.
"One of our cars had broken down. And so, Don wasn't able to go to work, and was at risk of losing his job because I had to go to work and school...because school was what was getting us out of this situation."
She had to pick up extra hours anytime she could. But she was already working full time and the overtime left no room for sleep, let alone studying. That semester Nikia failed Pharmacology II, and that bumped back graduation a whole semester.
The Payoff After Graduation
She did graduate, five years ago, and with the very first check she cashed as a Registered Nurse the payoff was clear.
"I paid all my bills in one check, and I still had money left over!" she says, her eyes suddenly wide with enthusiasm.
"I mean, I bought new clothes for the first time in, like, five years. It's not even that big of deal a deal. I wear the same clothes every day anyway... black shirts and jeans. Well I bought new jeans and new black shirts because it was the first time we actually had money left over after paying the bills to do something."
The Moment That Changed Everything
It wasn't Nikia's plan to start off her adult life with a series of dead-end jobs. Nor was it a given in her family that she would go to college. But she did. As a high-school student in Mesick, Nikia also took classes at Northwestern Michigan College. In the aviation program, she learned to fly and she planned on a career in the Air Force after high school.
But she also met Don, and she got pregnant. Today, Nikia is 29. Don, a mechanic, is 34. The couple has six children.
Simple Problems, Big Crisis
The day I visited, two of the kids, three-year-old Pheonix and six-year-old Kiyara, were sick.
For a sick kid, there's no school, no preschool, no daycare. Not a big deal today, but a few years ago this could have brought on a crisis.
"There's no paid time off, there's no, 'Oh, your kid's sick, take him to the doctor.' There's, 'Your kid's sick, if you don't come to work, you're going to lose your job," Nikia says. "And so there was a lot of tough choices."
Sometimes there was no choice at all. Every time Nikia had a baby, she was back to work just a few days after giving birth. With first-born Madyson, now nine, mom went back to work when she was three days old. It was the same with Kiyara and five-year-old Yjumari.
Then To Now
The proof Nikia Parker gives herself that she's beat poverty once and for all is her youngest. Ten-week-old Zander lies in her arms making pleasant little gasps and gurgles. With him, she had six weeks maternity leave.
"It's been really nice to have time to bond with him and stuff," Nikia says. "I mean, I bonded with the other kids but it's difficult when you just have a baby and then you have to go straight back to school and straight back to work. It just shows the difference between where we were then and where we are now.
"Then, if I hadn't worked, bills wouldn't have gotten paid. If I hadn't have gone back to school, I wouldn't have been able to graduate and get a better job and work at Munson, where I've got the paid maternity leave."
Making The Money Stretch
The family is by no means wealthy now. Nikia says the eight of them live on about $55,000 or $60,000 dollars a year. But she says they don't feel the least bit poor anymore
"You don't start going from Hamburger Helper to filet mignon," she says. "We've learned to be happy with less and we've just learned really innovative ways to make the money stretch."
The family chooses to live debt free, aside from the mortgage on their home, Nikia says. They buy cars with cash and they have a savings account.
"Plus, I can coupon clip like you wouldn't believe," she says. "I just got six boxes of Trix the other day for $1.50."
Getting Help
But Nikia says no amount of coupon clipping would have gotten her family out of poverty in the first place. They needed lots of help. Social workers were first to suggest she go back to school. The family also used government food assistance and got help with childcare. Another program helped them save up for their house.
And today, Nikia is frustrated some of those programs that helped her family could be on the chopping block in Lansing and in Washington, as lawmakers wrestle with budget deficits and spiraling debt.
So she's telling her story. This winter, she spoke about her life at a conference on poverty in Traverse City. That's hard. She says there's a certain shame talking about this. Poverty behind her, she would rather coworkers not know about her struggles from just a couple years ago.
"But I feel like I have a duty to talk about it for all the people that I left behind, all those people that are still there, still struggling," she says.
According to numbers from the Traverse Bay Poverty Reduction Initiative, in this area that's about 17,000 people.