Finding Safety, Rediscovering Herself: How Warren Village Gave Neema Room to Breathe

Neema arrived in Denver in 2023 with her infant son Nehemiah and a teaching degree, determined to build stability after months of searching. She’d tried South Carolina, then Pennsylvania, seeking support from friends and family. Nothing worked out. So she came to Denver alone with her baby, found student housing, and landed teaching jobs.

But postpartum depression—undiagnosed at the time—made everything impossibly hard. She couldn’t afford childcare on a teacher’s salary. The rent went unpaid for six months. By July 2024, eviction loomed.

“I was living in constant fear,” Neema recalls. “I’m the only person to provide for my kid. If something happens to me, there’s nowhere else to turn.”

Someone mentioned Warren Village. Neema thought maybe they could help with rent. When she walked in and learned it was a comprehensive program for single parents, she couldn’t believe it.

“I kept thinking, this is not real. When are they going to pull the rug underneath my feet?”

The Same Month, The Same Moment

The timing was extraordinary: the same July she faced eviction was the same month Warren Village accepted her application.

“Had it been one month late, I would have been on the street,” she says simply.

When Neema arrived at Warren Village, she was still in “frightened mode,” unable to relax. Her family advocate Janesa told her something she desperately needed to hear: “You don’t have to keep running. We’re not going to kick you out. You are safe here.”

Neema didn’t have furniture or a mattress. Warren Village provided everything she needed to start over—including helping her move to a third-floor apartment without an elevator.

“My fear was I won’t be able to provide for my kid. I won’t be able to keep him safe, and he’ll go into the system and they’ll call me an unfit mother. But I was really trying my best. What Warren Village gave me was: you have every right to be a mom to this kid.”

Learning to Breathe Again

For the first time in over a year, Neema says, she felt like she could breathe.

The affordable rent meant choices she’d never had before. No more deciding between feeding Nehemiah or getting him a Halloween costume—Warren Village provided costumes. No more anxiety about lights being shut off. No more making laundry decisions based on scarcity. The daycare was downstairs, not multiple bus rides away. There were diapers and wipes in the pantry when she needed them.

“I didn’t realize I was not breathing,” Neema reflects. “Everything was suffocated, everything was shoved in, and I was just trying to survive. I didn’t even know I had postpartum depression. I did not know how to process being a new mom.”

Warren Village connected her to free weekly therapy—the first mental health care she’d accessed in her adult life. She attended parenting and financial literacy classes. Her advocate helped her navigate systems she didn’t even know existed: SNAP benefits, TANF, bus discounts, affordable internet.

“I thought I had to do everything myself,” she says. “The message you get as a single parent is nobody gives a f— about you, nobody is coming to support you. But Warren Village helped me change my belief system—to believe that I can do it, and sometimes you just need that help.”

A Family for the Holidays

Holidays had always been hard for Neema. Originally from Tanzania, with family scattered across Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, and Texas, she’d spent holidays alone. Adding a child made it harder, watching friends gather for Thanksgiving and Christmas while she had nowhere to go.

Warren Village hosts Halloween parties, Thanksgiving dinners, and Christmas celebrations. Last year, Santa came to their door with gifts for Nehemiah, which meant everything to Neema. 

“You want to provide the world for your kids, but sometimes you can’t do that,” Neema says, wiping away tears. “Warren Village allowed me to be able to do that. I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything.”

She’s also found community among the other mothers—women who understand what she’s been through without explanation. They babysit for each other so someone can finish a school assignment or have a night out. They pass along clothes and toys. They attend classes together and talk in the hallways.

“Being a single parent can be a lonely journey,” Neema says. “The whole year I was here in Denver before Warren Village was so lonely. Just to walk down the hallway and see a homegirl—that matters.”

From Survival to Thriving

The stability created space for something Neema had almost forgotten: her own dreams.

“Emotionally, I came from a place of just surviving to a place where I feel like I’m now starting to thrive,” Neema explains. “It allowed me to no longer just shut down, but open up a little bit and let go of generational trauma and messages that I don’t want to pass on to my kid. I feel like I’m joyful again.”

When she first arrived, Neema couldn’t “see beyond tomorrow,” she says. “I was always afraid—would I have what I needed for my son? Would my son go into the system because I’m not a capable mom?” she recalls. “When you’re in the fire, all you care about is not burning anymore. You don’t see the field where you could grow a garden again.”

Warren Village gave her that vision. “They turned down the fire and said, ‘Hey, look beyond the ashes, this beauty that can be built here again.'”

She’s now a junior in college, studying psychology and law. Her goal is ambitious: earn her Master of Social Work, become a therapist, then pursue a law degree. She wants to work with young people, supporting them not just legally but emotionally and mentally.

“Young people need somebody who believes in them on the other side of the wall, someone who will listen to them and hear them out,” she says. “Eventually, my goal is to be a judge.”

She’s also rediscovering herself in smaller ways—writing poetry again, singing and playing keyboard, taking voice lessons at Performance High, going to the gym, finding the woman she was before motherhood consumed everything.

“Warren Village reminds me that I’m not just a mom. I was a ‘me’ before I was a mom,” she reflects. “That’s big. Finding her allows me to be even a better parent.”

Paying It Forward

What inspires Neema most about Warren Village is how staff empower rather than patronize. “They don’t treat moms like “a charity case.” They see them as capable human beings. It’s like, ‘Hey, I know this is your desire. Here are the tools to get there, and we’re here to support you.'”

She’s committed to never forgetting where she came from. When she’s successful and no longer living at Warren Village, she plans to give back—through donations, Christmas gift cards, sponsoring events or classes.

“A lot of these moms don’t want things just handed down,” Neema explains. “They want to be the superhero for their kid. What Warren Village does is say, ‘Hey, you have the tools. Go be great. We don’t want the credit, let the kid think you did it.’ And I like that. It’s not flashy. It’s just like, ‘Hey, we know you’re great. You just need the help, and we’re supportive.'”

Neema is set to speak at Warren Village’s upcoming All-In-For-A-Cause gala in November 2025—a full-circle moment she couldn’t have imagined fifteen months ago.

Three-year-old Nehemiah is thriving. He loves his teachers and classmates at the Early Learning Center downstairs. He shoots baskets while announcing “Gordon!” like the star from his beloved Denver Nuggets. He loves singing. He doesn’t know what it was like before Warren Village, and that’s exactly how Neema wants it.

A Message to Donors

When asked what she would tell donors whose support makes Warren Village possible, Neema’s answer is simple and profound:

“You helped a mom be able to give the world to their kids. You helped a mom be able to give the world to their kid when they wished they could, but they couldn’t. And now my kid really doesn’t go without, doesn’t even know the difference, doesn’t know what he loves. That is the best gift any single parent could ask for.”

She pauses, then adds: “They see vision beyond where you’re at. You’re not another case. You’re a mom who loves your kids who just went through a hard time and is getting back up again.”

From frightened and facing eviction to confident and pursuing her dreams—Neema’s journey shows that safety and community don’t just change one life. They create ripples that extend to the next generation and beyond, to all the young people she hopes to one day support as a therapist, social worker, and judge.