VIVE School Pathways to Success (Chante Martin)

Where do you go when you spend a good part of your life in homeless shelters? Ask Chante Martin. She is Yonkers born who started her life with her mother and two younger brothers homeless and in and out of shelters. Her school years were spent at Enrico Fermi and Roosevelt High School. She ended up in a shelter in Ossining and attended Ossining High School.

Chante dropped out of school and gave birth at sixteen to a son, Christopher. She lived at WESTHELP, a shelter operated by WESTHAB, for those who have babies under five. Though she had no diploma, she trained in a local program and graduated as a medical assistant. Unfortunately, Chante was unable to continue because by now drugs had claimed her life.

Back and forth, to her mother in Yonkers, a second child born, abandonment by her children's father and homeless once more, drugs continued to be her ruler. Her children were put in custody of her mother and her children's father. Chante was lost!

In 2010, Chante Martin got a new start - she found God. This turning point resulted in a completely new life for her. Drug free, she came to Pathways to Success because her mother is one of the school's grandparents in the Grandpower Program, housed at VIVE. She saw all these adults going to school and took a chance and enrolled. She took computer and academic classes. Today, Chante is a married woman who passed the GED test and holds a New York State High School Equivalency Diploma. She interned so successfully with Goodwill Industries, housed at VIVE, that as of June lsshte will be an employee of Goodwill.

No drugs, a marriage, a diploma and a job are accomplishments for a life time, but she did it in one year. Chante states, "I feel free, its good to accomplish something I didn't think I could do." Wow! If this is what Chante can do in one year "Watch out world." Chante is on her way.

Chante Martin Success Story