Melissa Horton

I definitely attribute my success to other people that have come before me that were willing to meet me where I was at. I was in jail, and City College brought in a class through the Rising Scholars, and them reaching out to me has fundamentally changed my life. I would also say I'm very involved with the women of this community here in Santa Barbara, and women are very powerful when they support each other. That support and willingness of others to reach out and help me when I was at my lowest point made all the difference in turning my life around.

I would first want to draw out what it is she enjoys doing, what are her skills naturally, and what are areas that she's afraid of, to try to get her to acknowledge where her strengths are and to build on them. I would also encourage her to face fear and go for something that she secretly wants or desperately wants but is afraid of failing, and encourage her to just go for it. Then I would also encourage her to reach out to people around her when she is struggling, so that she knows she has support and community to build her up and be able to achieve her goals. Having that support system and being brave enough to pursue what you really want, even when you're scared, is so important.

One of the biggest challenges that faces people that work with those experiencing homelessness is that there's a gap in housing options. There are shelters, and then there's permanent housing, but there are some people that, due to mental illness or maybe even physical illness, are not capable of living on their own. Outside of a board and care, there's not really much being done for these people. They need an extra level of support. That's one of the things that we've been trying to bring to light - the gap in housing where people can live in apartments independently or they can live in shelters, but there's no intermediary section where you can have a case worker come by and work with them regularly to get them to where they can be independent.

I value collaboration most of all. I love working with other people, as well as other nonprofits or institutions to get a job completed. I have found that when we join forces, we are able to get amazing things accomplished. I also value transparency and honesty. If something isn't able to be done, being able to say, hey, this is something we cannot get done, and then being able to look at what's holding it back. Being honest about limitations and working together to overcome them is essential to the work I do and how I approach both my professional and personal life.