Shontiesha Floyd: A Parents Path to Success

Shontiesha Floyd is the mother two children: age three and six. Her youngest child attends Head Start. Life obstacles caused Shontiesha to lose her factory job; so, she decided to enroll at the UIC FAST West program in the Fall of 2018.

Staff provided academic and other support along with strategies to keep Shontiesha motivated. She focused on studying to earn her GED, training to secure a summer job as a parent advocate and literacy leader, the skills needed to design a business that would help the community and was selected to serve an AmeriCorps volunteer.

One of the goals she achieved was to master writing her persuasive essay. Another was to complete Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) restorative justice workshops. She learned strategies to navigate conflict in her community and to better understand why it was there. COFI later hired her to become a parent ambassador where she went door to door over the summer helping parents to enroll their children in Head Start.

Shontiesha was also hired as a Team Leader for teens through UIC FAST Outreach / CHA Safe Summer partnership program. She learned to supervise teens who assisted Head Start teachers with early literacy activities for preschool age children during the summer.

Shontiesha was part of their restorative justice workshops for teens on Fridays where shared ways to bring these skills to the children in the Head Start sites. She helped the teens set SMART goals that reinforced patience, time management, and organizational skills.

In UIC FAST Social Entrepreneurial and Educational (SEEP) Program, she researched and designed a pitch for a business that would help the community. She did an asset map of North Lawndale, a budget for her business, and a PowerPoint pitch to prepare her for the pitch contest. These workshops gave her the tools to write her business plan as she got feedback to make her pitch better. Her pitch was a community outreach program for teens focusing on after school tutoring and activities called 773 in the West Garfield community. She won the second prize of $350 to start her business.

Shontiesha is currently serving as an AmeriCorps member tutoring parents and community members to get their GED at FAST West where she earned her credential last year. Wow, we feel like Shontiesha is our modern-day Harriet Tubman. Her railroad is education and perseverance.