Help Single Mom Rebuild After Crisis

My best friend Sam and my niece urgently need community support after facing two major crises in just one week. First, Sam was forced to flee an abusive living situation in New Jersey that escalated to the point where she and her child could no longer remain safely. Sam balances multiple roles—she’s a part-time law student, teaches yoga classes, runs a small business, and is a single mom—but her finances were already stretched thin before this abrupt relocation. Without the resources for a moving truck, she had to leave behind almost all of her belongings, including furniture, bedding, baby essentials like a changing table and high chair, and even brand-new gifts from her daughter’s first birthday and Christmas. She packed what she could into her car and headed to Colorado, where she had previously secured housing.

As if that weren’t enough, while traveling, we got word that Sam’s mom—her main source of support—suffered a brain aneurysm (or a similar medical event) causing internal bleeding. Though she’s stable, she will remain hospitalized for the next few weeks, which means she can’t help Sam get settled or offer the support she was counting on.

I’ve been with Sam for the past week, helping in every way I can, but I am back in Michigan now, and she is on her own. My goal is to raise enough funds so Sam and her daughter can truly start fresh. Escaping generational trauma and abuse often depends on strong community support and financial stability, and Sam urgently needs help to replace the essentials she left behind and cover childcare while her mom recovers.

Sam rarely asks for help—she’s always managed as best she can—but she truly needs it now. If you’re able to contribute, whether through a donation or by purchasing items from her wishlist, please know that every bit of support will make a meaningful difference. Thank you for reading her story and for any help you can offer to give my best friend and niece the safe, stable future they deserve.

**also thank you to those that already donated via Venmo when I originally shared about this on my Instagram