Chattanooga: Neediest Cases helps single mother get back on her feet

After bouncing all her life among foster homes, shelters and abusive relationships, Mandy Kincaid finally can say she has what she needs to get a fresh start with her three small children:

A three-bedroom apartment.

Mrs. Kincaid recently received $175 from the Neediest Cases Fund, money that helped her move out of a shelter and pay the deposit and first month’s rent for a public housing apartment near the Georgia state line.

“This is the first home I really have for myself,” Mrs. Kincaid said as her children played around her.

The Neediest Cases Fund is funded through an annual campaign by the Chattanooga Times Free Press and distributed through the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults.

Mrs. Kincaid’s entire source of income is $200 in monthly child support she receives for her 3-year-old son Trey, she said. Out of that, she pays $50 for rent and the rest goes to buy diapers and other household items.

She doesn’t have a vehicle, she said, and she depends on her daughter’s grandparents to take her to the grocery store whenever they are able.

Geri Goodwin, Mrs. Kincaid’s case manager with the Partnership, said the main goal of its Family Violence Center is to keep women such as Mrs. Kincaid safe and provide them with life skills.

“Our main goal is to empower them and provide them with the tools to be self-sufficient and make healthier choices for future interactions with significant others,” she said.

Thanks to the Partnership, Mrs. Kincaid said, she’s now learning how to identify the signs of abusive behavior.

“I really never got on my feet. Because of my lack of family, I always ended up in abusive relationships,” she said. “I guess I would clinch to guys that would fill that gap.”

She said she has been in two abusive relationships, one of which almost killed her. Mrs. Kincaid lost her mother when she was 2 years old and her father when she was five.

“I’ve lived in shelters my whole life. My siblings and I were split when my parents died, and I bounced from foster home to foster home until I was 18,” the 27-year-old said.

She said she first visited the Partnership two years ago after she called a domestic violence hotline that directed her to the agency.

“At that time, I stayed in the shelter for about three weeks, then they talked to me about a transitional program they had and I lived in a house with some roommates (for a while),” she said.

Later, Mrs. Kincaid moved out to live with her boyfriend, but after having problems with him, she went back to the shelter and lived there for a couple of months until last September, when she finally moved into her own apartment, she said.

“I don’t have a job right now,” she said. “I don’t have a source of income. I would like to do office work, but so far I haven’t found anything,” Mrs. Kincaid said.

Right now, she said, she’s not in a relationship and is focused on finding a job and raising her children.

About three years ago, she was enrolled in college and completed two semesters of basic courses when she had to drop out because her partner kicked her out of his home, she said.

“Eventually, I would like to go back to school to study nursing,” she said. “I’ve always been intrigued to help people.”