Getting back on your feet after losing your home or your job can be daunting.
It’s a feeling Jennifer Vosler knows well. The Midlothian mother left a troubled marriage with her three sons and only one bed and some clothes.
Furnishing a new home for her kids was a luxury Vosler didn't think she could afford, until Chicago-area The Home 2 Home Project stepped in.
"I let her in, I went to work, and I came home and I was just in tears," Vosler said of The Home 2 Home Project's stunning makeover of her once-empty apartment -- now a warm, inviting home.
"Couches, tables, plants, bathroom towels, dishes, everything you need for your place and to be able to function daily," she said.
Janelle Towne, founder of The Home 2 Home Project, works with local homeless shelters to help women who are moving into apartments but don’t have the furniture or furnishings they need.
"A lot of these women are working really hard," Towne said. "They have minimum wage jobs. They have children.”
"The thought of going out and getting this stuff and paying for it is overwhelming,” she said.
That’s why volunteers recently loaded up truckfuls of furniture to transform Natalia Serna's stark apartment where the single Addison mom had one bed for her daughter and two sons.
"The people that we’re helping are very, very hard-working people and they just need someone to give them a little hand to get those boot straps pulled up,” Towne said.
Since the non-profit started in March, The Home 2 Home Project has transformed 14 apartments.
"They walk in and there’s that moment when they’re speechless," Towne said, "and that’s what I live for."
After hours spent hanging curtains and making beds in Addison, Serna came home from work beaming brightly at the sight of new newly decorated and furnished home.
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Her two-bedroom apartment was transformed, now with enough beds for everyone.
Serna's daughter Alejandra said she is "really happy that I'm finally going to sleep in my own bed."
“Thank you so much,” Serna said.
If you have furniture or home furnishings you would like to donate -- or time to help with a move-in -- head to The Home 2 Home Project's website.
