Nonprofit Helping Homeless Women, Children Opening Larger Space

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A longtime provider of services for homeless women and children is getting a new home that's bigger and better.

Michelle Scott remembers first coming to St. John's Shelter as a single mother of four.

"I was just so tired of the life I was living," she said. "I was addicted. I was an ex-gang member and institutionalized and then lastly stuck in a domestic violence relationship. My face was fractured, my ribs were broken."

She came and turned her life around, becoming a professional chef. Now that program that helped her is getting a transformation of its own.

The building is new, tripling the nonprofit's space. And so is their name: Now it's called St. John's program for real change. The grand opening is slated for Friday.

But even with all that change, the clients they will serve are the same—homeless women and children, often fleeing domestic violence.

"We provide drug and alcohol counseling, domestic violence classes, and help them understand what led them to being homeless, and then we help build them up," said CEO Michele Steeb.

More than nine out of 10 graduates of their employment training program go on to secure jobs. what's more, it's made families whole again.

"You know what I like about my job here," Scott said. "I get to offer hope and inspiration to the women, and that's a blessing. And to let them know if I can do it, they can do it."

The project's construction and other costs were covered through a partnership of businesses, individuals and grant funders.