Mission Accomplished: Nikki Reynolds

Before coming to the Mission, Nikki had reached (as she describes it) “rock bottom.” She and her two kids were living in a roach-infested, violence-filled apartment with her boyfriend. She learned about the Mission and applied for a room. Nikki remembers entering her Mission room for the first time. “I will never forget going into the room and seeing this huge laundry basket filled with toiletries. Just coming in and seeing all those toiletries was amazing. It felt so good. It was as if I was getting a little piece of me back,” Nikki says.

When Nikki entered the Mission in 2014, she couldn’t find a good job despite having her master’s degree in organizational communication. The disappointment led to anger and resentment, but the kindness and patience of her case managers at the Mission changed her attitude towards everything. “The staff is amazing. The residents are coming in broken and often projecting their hatred onto the staff members, and it takes really good people to be able to deal with that. The staff was what I needed when I needed it.”

Nikki began to embrace the Mission’s programs. “The system works if you allow it to work. There are some people who will allow their current situation to take over, but I did not. I knew that the Mission was going to provide a light at the end of the tunnel.” After a year, Nikki moved out of the Mission and got a job at Southern Technical College in Sanford, where she met her husband, Dr. John Dickey.

Nikki and Dr. Dickey got married in 2017 and now have a blended family of seven. Since then, Nikki has been working towards her Ph.D., and the couple has founded Our Next Us Childcare, where Nikki serves as the Director.

She thanks our donors for transforming her life. “Because of your contributions, women come out of the Mission who are successful, who learned a lot, and who truly appreciate the help. Your donations help us get through these hard times when other people are not there. When I came to the Mission, I did not have an ID, I did not have clothes, I did not have a lot of stuff…. These donors probably do not understand how important their gifts are. They change lives, and I just want to say thank you.”