Drea is a working mother and a survivor of domestic violence who lives with her two young children in Hayward, California. Before she discovered One Degree, she was frustrated by the social services process. “In the Bay Area, getting help in general, you get all these phone numbers and never hear back,” she said. Unpredictable Google searches and outdated information prevented Drea from accessing the resources that she needed.

After getting housing through Compass Family Services, a worker there referred her to One Degree. What she found was that One Degree addressed many of the issues she had encountered with searching for resources before. With the help of One Degree, Drea was able to find other programs to help her with her job search, and she used the platform to keep them all in one place.

Given her own experience, Drea hopes that more people would use One Degree, “One Degree is a one-stop shop, better than going to all these different websites.”

Since we last spoke with Drea, she has been volunteering at CalWORKS and the South Hayward Parish food pantry winter shelter. She has held her position as a case manager for two years at the First Presbyterian Church’s resource center for people who are experiencing homelessness! Since she has experienced homelessness before and understands how it is, it makes her feel really good to be able to help people in this way. Drea would like to highlight the Bay Area Legal Aid, Hamilton Families, Compass Connect and Catholic Charities as resources that have been greatly supportive. She is excited to keep sharing One Degree with her team with a weekly workshop to share how “One Degree is your resource center. Boom!”.