Community Action helps struggling mother

This is one in a series of stories about the people and agencies that benefit from the Freeman Holiday Fund.

CATSKILL, N.Y. » Nicole Seaborg said she does not know what her family would have done without the assistance of Community Action of Greene County.

Seaborg, 33, said her fiancé was fired from his job Sept. 6. He had been the sole support for their family, which includes her 2-yearold son, she said.

“So we had no income at all,” Seaborg said. She said she reached out to everyone she could in the community for help, including the county Department of Social Services and Catholic Charities. It was Community Action, though, that provided the most beneficial assistance, Seaborg said.

Community Action helped the family with food through its food pantry and helped pay for her car insurance, Seaborg said. She said the organization may also be able to help the family with some of the back rent it owes on their residence in Jefferson Heights.

“It’s definitely gotten me on my feet for sure,” Seaborg said of Community Action. “Because without this, I don’t know what we would have done.”

Seaborg added that the staff at Community Action is compassionate and cares about the people they help.

“They have been nothing but nice and helpful and

considerate,” Seaborg said.

Seaborg, who is a recovering drug addict, said she is a different person now than she was even last year. She said she feels like a responsible adult and is now a good mother to her son. She also has the support of her fiancé, who recently started a new job working overnights, Seaborg said.

As part of her recovery, Seaborg said she attends intensive out-patient services through Twin Counties Recovery Services. She said she also does 20 hours of job searching each week, as well as volunteering between 20 and 25 hours weekly at Community Action. Seaborg said she volunteers as much as she can for the agency that helped her family.

Seaborg said she would like to find a service job where she can work with the disabled and mentally handicapped individuals, as she has done in the past. She said, though, it is hard to find work as a convicted felon. Seaborg said she was convicted of felony grand larceny in 2008 for stealing jewelry from a friend’s mother. She served prison time and was on parole for the offense, she said.

The drug use, she added, started six years ago after her parents died within four months of one another. She said that even though

she has relapsed in the past, she knows she is done with drugs now. Seaborg said she had used the drugs to suppress her feelings over her parents, but since attending rehab she has learned how to grieve.

Seaborg said she wants to move forward and work toward a career because she is a good person who now has a second chance at life.

Contributions may be mailed to Holiday Fund, Daily Freeman, 79 Hurley Ave., Kingston, N.Y. 12401.

Contributors’ names will be published periodically, though requests for anonymity will be honored.

Questions about the fund should be directed Brenda Crantz at (845) 400-1202 or email bcrantz@freemanonline.com.

Seaborg, who is a recovering drug addict, said she is a different person now than she was even last year. She said she feels like a responsible adult and is now a good mother to her son.