Group that helps single moms teams up with Payton Foundation

Beki Grissom calls Fellowship Housing the best-kept secret in the Northwest suburbs.

Grissom, a caseworker with the group that helps get homeless and economically struggling single mothers back on their feet, and her colleagues are hoping that's not the case for long, thanks to a new partnership with Connie Payton and the Walter and Connie Payton Foundation.

The Hoffman Estates-based organization has named Payton as an honorary chair in hopes her presence will help increase the charity's profile. Payton, who founded her foundation with late husband and Bears legend Walter Payton, will speak Feb. 26 at Fellowship's third annual gala.

“Everybody needs to know this organization out here in the suburbs because sometimes we get too comfortable living out here,” Payton said. “Whether it's the Northwest suburbs or the South suburbs, you think it's all right, you think a lot of these issues and these problems are in the inner city, but it's happening right here in front of our noses and we're too blind and just don't want to see it.”

Fellowship helps house homeless or working poor single moms as they go through a two-year program learning the skills to live and flourish on their own. The organization, often with the help of Habitat for Humanity, then finds permanent housing for women who complete the program.

“The housing is what stabilizes the mom, and then it's our program that we've developed that really makes a difference in the mom's life,” Fellowship board President Karen Fitzgerald said.

The program helps about 30 women each year and has worked with about 550 women and children over the last two decades. The organization says 92 percent of the women who enroll successfully complete the program, which teaches participants how to eliminate debt, establish financial accountability and stay within a budget.

Often participants suffer not only from financial woes, but also physical ones. About half the women enrolled are victims of domestic abuse, the group says.

“We all have our own stories. Obviously, life doesn't always go as you planned,” said Fellowship graduate Norali Molina. “Even if you try to do things the right way, a lot of people still see, still hear ‘single moms' and they think you're not working at all.”

Molina, 36, of Carpentersville, finished the Fellowship program last year. Today she works for a credit card processing company and has moved into a house where she and her 14-year-old daughter have separate rooms. It's a major upgrade from the cramped studio apartment they once shared.

“I don't even want to think about where I'd be if I didn't have Fellowship,” she said.

Private donations fund the organization, which spends about $12,500 per year on rent for each participating family. The group's annual budget is about $750,000.

The program is selective and demanding. Fellowship will find housing for participating mothers, but it comes with strings attached, including requirements that they work, maintain a valid driver's license and not allow overnight stays by boyfriends.

“It's expensive and takes a lot of time and effort to empower someone,” Fitzgerald said. “You can give them food, or give them a place to sleep for the night, it's not really a long-term commitment. Fellowship Housing is more a long-term commitment.”

Although started through Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, the group draws from a diverse pool of women. While spirituality is encouraged, it's not required.

For Fitzgerald, who's been the agency's president for three years, it was a family connection that got her involved. Her daughter went through the program after becoming a single mom at 20 years old.

“She was very depressed because she didn't know anybody else in her situation,” Fitzgerald said. “I just didn't know what to do. You can have all the money in the world, but sometimes you can't help your own child. It was very frustrating.”

Fitzgerald met Payton about three years ago when Payton moved into her Inverness neighborhood. She eventually built up the courage to ask Payton if she could lend her name to increase Fellowship's profile.

Because some of her foundation's work mirrors that of Fellowship, Payton said she hopes to learn from the group when it comes to showing single mothers the importance of financial accountability.

“Yes, it's hard to be a single mom, but it's something that you can do,” Payton said. “If they just had an organization like this behind them, maybe a lot them would have their kids still and these families would still be intact.”