Katherine

A Circle’s Story

My name is Katherine Dieterie and I am a Graduated Pathways to Prosperity Leader in Sussex County, NJ. In fact, I am becoming an Ally to new Pathways to Prosperity Leader.

I have come a long way from where I was 2 years ago. I had lost my job 3 years ago and when I joined Pathways to Prosperity I didn’t realize how depressed I was feeling. I was lost and not myself. Within the first week of becoming a Pathways to Prosperity Leader, I signed up for classes to re-train myself so that I could find a job that would sustain me until retirement. I started taking classes to become certified as a Medical Coder.

This amazing group of men and women helped me to realize that I wasn’t going to be able to change my life sitting around and wallowing. We were going to lose our house to foreclosure and I didn’t know what else to do to try and stop that. I had been looking for a job for over 2 years at this point and I was becoming very frustrated and depressed. I hadn’t had an interview in over 6 months at the time I joined Pathways to Prosperity. With the help of everyone that is involved at some level with the Pathways to Prosperity program, they assisted me in finding myself, they were instrumental in getting me back to who I was. They literally changed my life.

Things at home were very strained with all of us. My husband was feeling a great strain being the only one working and not really seeing an end to the misery we were living. Knowing that there were people out there that were in the same situation I was in, in some form or another, and coming together to support each other was comforting. We began to realize that we could bring ourselves out of this with the help of all the people involved, hard work and commitment to make our lives different.

It gave me my mojo back and allowed me to feel useful along the way also. I really felt that there wasn’t anything I was going to get out of this, but I joined for my daughter, to help her get involved and hopefully be able to change her life. Little did I know that it was going to change my life so dramatically!

I am now gainfully employed and just was given a raise after seven and a half months working in a position I had never done before. I got my confidence back and I was able to sell myself and truly believe it. I think that’s why I was hired and I was able to show them who I am as an employee and a human being.

We also were able to save our house from foreclosure by doing a re-modification of our mortgage. We now have a payment we can afford and manage for the long haul. We have also reduced our consumer debt and are paying off 2 credit cards that we have left. We are at the end of the tunnel.

Our lives as a whole family have changed completely. It had been a hellish 2 and a half years but it has made us, as a family, stronger and we know that we can get through anything together. And we also know that we have a great group of people to be able to rely on for just about anything we may need along the way. And now I am going to help a newly graduated Pathways to Prosperity Leader move forward to meet their goals by becoming an ally or mentor to them.