Sitting in a warm and cozy living room, Veronica Villareal does something familiar to all moms; she coos at her baby, "Hi, how are you this morning, huh?"
Veronica's little boy is almost four months. The teenaged mom had to grow up fast, but says she's done it with the help of Casa De Vida. "I don't know where I would be. They just help me so much," says Villareal, who now lives in a small apartment alongside the main home.
Located in on the corner of Yori and Mill in Reno, Casa De Vida has been supporting pregnant young women for more than 30 years. The girls receive room, board and all the support services they need, free of charge.
April Gonzales, Executive Director for the non-profit organization, explains - "A residential home, which young, pregnant women between the ages of 12 and 25 can come and live and we'll help them complete school if they haven't done that, find employment."
"You can't get work without a diploma or a G.E.D., anything - it's a big help," says Mandy Lawson, a new resident at Casa.
After losing her job recently, 19-year-old Mandy almost ended up at the women's shelter in Reno. Here she has her own cozy room, home cooked meals, supplies for her soon-to-be-born baby and she's back in school.
Gonzales tells us how it works - "We'll start a treatment plan with them where they'll meet with our family therapist and our social worker and our case worker and start on a plan on what they need to do to be self-sufficient."
And the plan works. Only 17-year-old, Veronica has already finished high school and started college. She says her experience at Casa De Vida has really motivated her to work hard. “My parents weren't really, like they didn't have a lot of money and I don't want my kids to be like that, I want them to be better. So that's why. It's all for them.”
In the basement of Casa De Vida - is Wanda's closet. The space is filled with children's clothes, shoes and baby supplies - free to anyone in need. All thanks to generous donors in our community.
The non-profit runs strictly on grants and donations and is need of support. It costs about $300,000 a year to run the organization. “We always need money,” says Gonzales. “I mean we need help in a lot of other ways, but we need money to pay the electric bill and keep food in the cabinets.”
Casa will gratefully accept any in-kind donations- clothing, shoes, furniture as well as diapers and baby formula.
If you can help or are in need of support you can find Casa De Vida at www.casadevidareno.org
