CA-11 (II)
A 27 year-old woman living with her boyfriend and two young children in Watsonville, CA.
Interviewer: Okay, section 1, household support. How do you maintain your household support on a day-to-day basis? Describe the resources you use to make the household run and how you supervise the children, including any assistance from outside your circle of family and friends. Resources you use in running the household, for example putting food on the table, paying bills and paying rent.
Author: Well, right now, I’m receiving unemployment benefits. I’m not working at the time. So, that’s how I’m able to pay bills and put food on the table for the kids.
Interviewer: And how much time do you have to supervise the children?
Author: All day right now.
Interviewer: And other resources that help in parenting your children?
Author: Uh, counseling, school.
Interviewer: And assistance you receive form outside your circle of family or friends such as subsidized childcare or housing subsidy?
Author: I receive childcare through CalWorks and I also receive housing authority.
Interviewer: Okay, and consider the following question below and answer using the letter that best corresponds to the situation. Compared to two years ago, supporting my household today is much harder, harder, unchanged, easier, or much.
Author: It’s much harder, only because my children are getting big. They need more now that they are getting bigger.
Compared to two years ago, supporting my household today is much harder.
Interviewer: Section 2, Child’s well-being. How are your children doing in terms of their physical health, their safety, and their academics and school behavior or in daycare? The point[s] to cover on [one] at a time—your children’s physical health?
Author: My kids are very healthy.
Interviewer: And their safety?
Author: They are safe.
Interviewer: And your children’s academic performance in school?
Author: Both of my kids do really well in school.
Interviewer: And your children’s behavior in school or in day care?
Author: I’ve been having a little bit of a problem with my kids in school, only my son was diagnosed with ADHD. So I’ve been having problems with him, and I’ve been trying to seek some type of, uh, maybe counseling for him, and I’m going through a 504 plan with him right now with him in school and my daughter she’s in daycare. She’s only three, but I was told she was too spoiled. And she doesn’t really pay attention or think she has to listen. She’s very testy, so I’m working on that with her right now.
Interviewer: And consider the following question and answer using the letter that best corresponds to your situation. Compared to two years ago, the general well-being is?
Author: As far as a behavior, it’s kind of unchanged, but overall it’s much better.
Compared to two years ago, the general well-being of my children is much better.
Interviewer: Section 3, How well is your household meeting its basic needs? Describe the things that affect your family’s ability to meet these needs, including adequacy of earned income, public benefits you may use (TANF, Medicaid, Food Stamps, SSI), and help with basic needs that any other people may provide. And points to cover, first how well your family is meeting its basic needs for food, clothing, housing, medical care, and education.
Author: It’s far—it’s been kind of a struggle because I haven’t been working and we barely have enough to get by. If, maybe, if I would’ve got my education and furthered that, I would have been able to get a better job and provide more for them. But as of right now, it’s hard. Because I’m not working.
Interviewer: And things that help your family meet its basic needs?
Author: A job.
Interviewer: A job. Things that would interfere with making ends meet?
Author: Not being able to find a job that will give me a chance and be willing to give me the training that I need.
Interviewer: And then consider the following question, compared to two years ago, my family’s ability to meet its basic needs is?
Author: Unchanged.
Compared to two years ago, my family’s ability to its basic needs is unchanged.
Interviewer: Section four, for housing. How well is your housing meeting your family’s needs? Describe how well it fits the size of your family, its physical condition, the safety of the neighborhood, and how convenient it is for work, school, child care and for visiting relatives. We’ll begin with the first point to cover, how well those it fit with the size of your family?
Author: The house fits the size. We all have our own room, so it’s a lot better.
Interviewer: And the physical condition?
Author: It’s in really good condition; it’s a nice home.
Interviewer: The safety of the neighborhood?
Author: The neighborhood is kind of infested with gangsters right now. But uh, we really aren’t there. My kids are in school or in daycare most of the day, while I’m out looking for a job. So basically we are just there to go to sleep, but I mean they are no harm to us, but it’s just kind of uncomfortable.
Interviewer: And convenience for work, school, child care and for visiting relatives?
Author: It’s very convenient.
Interviewer: Consider the following question and answer using the letter that best corresponds, compared to two years ago, my housing is?
Author: It’s much better.
Compared to two years ago, my housing is much better.
Interviewer: Section 5, emotional well-being. What feelings have you been experiencing the most lately? Describe how this, these feelings, influences your work and parenting, and whether you have sought help for any of these feelings. Beginning with the first point, the feelings that you have been experiencing the most lately.
Author: The feelings that I have been experiencing are not being able to find [a] job that I’m qualified for. I just wish [I] would of stayed in school and furthered my education so I can find a job, because everywhere you look they want experience, and I don’t really have experience except for what I’ve learned from the people who have given me a chance. So that’s the—the thing that’s been bothering me the most.
Interviewer: And how do these feelings influence your work?
Author: Uh—it’s kind of hard for me because when you go to jobs they expect all out of you and if you don’t know enough, they are not willing to give you the training and it kind of brings you down, it affects your self-esteem.
Interviewer: And are these feelings influencing your parenting?
Author: Um—sometime they do. I kind of wish I would’ve waited to have children before I went and rushed into that because then I would have had more to offer them if I had waited.
Interviewer: And whether you sought any help for these feelings?
Author: Yeah, I’ve been going to counseling.
Interviewer: And consider the following question and answer using the letter that best corresponds to your situation, compared to two years ago, my emotional well-being is?
Author: Unchanged.
Compared to two years ago, my emotional well-being is unchanged.
Interviewer: And then section 6, employment. Tell us about your current or last job. Describe the type of job, whether the wages, benefits, and hours are/were sufficient, and what kinds of training and advancement opportunities there are/were, if any. So first, your current job or your last job?
Author: Uh, I worked for Phoenix Services, which was my last job as a counselor, and I really enjoyed it. I did like working with…[unintelligible] rescue, however there was room for growth. I think if they would have been more organized, but because of their deficit, it caused a lot of problems for me, which I was not getting paid on time. And, I can’t, I mean, I work for a reason to get paid and I wasn’t, so that’s what really messed it up for me. But, I did enjoy that type of work.
Interviewer: And what about the wages, benefits and hours of your last job?
Author: The wages were good, and the benefits weren’t great. I didn’t have any benefits for my kids. It only covered me, and I mean, I can’t afford even that because the benefits that we did have didn’t cover me, [and] I had to pay a lot of out-of-pocket. The hours they were good, but the only thing I disliked about that was working weekends. I didn’t get to spend my weekends with my kids.
Interviewer: And then the kinds of training and advancement opportunities that existed in the job, if any?
Author: There was no training really, but there was room for advancement, but there wasn’t very much training. Uh—even coming into the job, I didn’t get very much training. I had to basically pick everything up on my own because the person who was the supervisor at the time didn’t give me proper training.
Interviewer: And then, consider the following question and answer using the letter that best corresponds. Compared to two years ago, the wages and benefits of the job I have now?
Author: Much worse.
Compared to two years ago, the wages and benefits of the job I have now are much worse.
7. BASIC FACTS
Your community or neighborhood of residence: Watsonville
Gender: Female
Last year of school completed: 9th grade
GED: Yes
Race: Hispanic
Ethnicity:
Manner in which story was originally given: Tape recorded