From young mother to role model

Before the birth of her daughter, Lakenya Johnson saw the holidays as just another season to survive. “I was here and there,” said the former runaway, an honor roll student who came home to no father figure and a mother with a substance-abuse problem.
“Holidays were a supposed to be joyful, but they were not. I don’t remember having a joyful Christmas,” Johnson said.
In 2000, she moved into Bridge Elliot, a single-parent house and co-operative transitional apartment program through Bridge Over Troubled Waters, which caters to young homeless people and runaways trying to improve their lives.
“After I had my daughter, I needed some type of stability,” Johnson said. Through the program she developed her parenting skills and “found stability.”
“Young people don’t run away from a home that’s safe or nurturing,” said Denella Clark, a spokesperson for Bridge Over Troubled Waters. “A lot of families are stressed, especially around the holidays. They fall on financial hard times, and with that there can be mental or drug abuse. Our goal is to reconnect families. We have to do more to help young people transition to adulthood.”
Through Bridge Over Troubled Waters and the Elliot House, girls such as Lakenya can find that help whether they reconnect with their old family or develop a better household with their kids.
“I knew how to cook for myself,” she said. “But through Bridge, I learned how to cook bigger meals. It was like making Thanksgiving dinner because it was nine moms and 10 kids there. I learned how to keep a curfew, how to set a schedule for my daughter and myself. It gave me a different perspective on bettering my life for my child.”
Now that her daughter Dakeyla is 8, Johnson runs her household, has a better relationship with her mother and has custody of her 19-year-old sister.
Johnson also works for a Fortune 500 brokerage firm and volunteers at shelters for homeless mothers.
“I learned to be grateful for what I had, and strived for the best in being successful, financially, mentally and emotionally.”