Khadijah Irving

In December 2018, Khadijah's graduate program closed its doors unexpectedly when she was just one credit shy of graduating. Although her sister had invited her previously to stay with her until she finished up with school, one night, her sister turned her out of the house. Suddenly, she found herself sleeping in her car in the middle of winter with her little dog, Noodles.

After twelve days Khadijah was given a bed at a Women’s Shelter in Atlanta. While eating breakfast, Khadijah overheard a resident telling someone else about the Atlanta Center for Self-Sufficiency. She apologized for ease dropping, but asked if she could get more information about the program. From what Khadijah was told about ACSS she felt hopeful that her life was about to start changing for the better!

Khadijah attended ACSS’s CareerWorks program. During that time, she was asked to tell her story in public for an ACSS mission-support event in May.

“Although the wheels were already starting to turn,” Khadijah says, “that storytelling event became the moment from which so much more change emerged. The next month after it—the month of June—was a total whirlwind.”

Within a month after ACSS storytelling event, Khadijah secured employment, graduated with her Master’s Degree in Counseling, and most importantly moved out of the shelter into her brand new apartment!!!

Even more amazing? ACSS came back to Khadijah and offered her a job, poaching her away from the job she'd already landed with the State of Georgia.

Now, Khadijah works as a Career Navigator, helping people who are experiencing homelessness, just like she was this time last year, find jobs and end the cycle of homelessness. In her job, Khadijah goes into shelters like City of Refuge, sets up a mobile office with her laptop, and interviews people about their work experience and goals. From there, it's all about working with individuals to obtain employment and get them the training they need to increase their earning capacity.

What’s something she loves about her job? "I just love helping people figure out their careers and helping them get started." It’s so amazing to Khadijah the way the cycle of support and giving back through ACSS came first with them helping her, then her giving back by participating in the storytelling event, and then back and forth until here we are today.

What’s something that’s hard about her job? "It’s sometimes disappointing, though understandable, to see how a person can get overwhelmed or defeated and start losing steam on their pursuit of a career," Khadijah says. She wants everyone to succeed. Sometimes it’s challenging because people are in desperate need of stability. Sometimes they need more than just job training, so she has a lot of complicated conversations, but she understands the barriers that makes it challenging for some people to re-enter the workforce.

What’s a dream Khadijah has for ACSS? “I want ACSS to be known! I want them to be talking about us on the radio!” She also would like people to give lots of money here at the end of the year to support ACSS’s expansion of services and mission for growth, all the things that are possible with our new space.