A
Helping Program for Women
By
Karen Hershenson Times columnist
KAREN JUSTICE-GUARD has been through it all - heroin
addition, and a beating so severe, "I had no face."
But she finally got her life together, and now all her
energy goes into helping abused women on welfare reinvent
themselves. "I didn't know how to run my own life,"
she says. "I made so many mistakes. My family was mad
at me, I had no self-esteem. You can't steal it, you
can't buy it, you have to earn it one day at a time."
Since April, the bubbly Clayton woman has been transforming
the employee cafeteria at Varian Inc. in Walnut Creek
into a cozy café called the Express Yourself Bistro.
Besides offering workers lunch items, meals to go and
home-baked bread, she's using it to train women on welfare
about catering, which she learned through a couple of
family businesses - the popular Sunshine Café and
Sunshine Bistro in Walnut Creek.
Her dream is to open a resource center offering computer
training, support groups, child care and other services
to women on welfare. And for that she just got a huge
boost - United Parcel Service awarded her a $25,000 grant,
which puts her into the running for grants of either $50,000
or $100,000. A decision will be made sometime this month.
That will be seed money., What Justice-Guard really needs
is a building in Central Contra Costa, about 1,500 to
2,000 square feet. The Contra Costa Builders Exchange
has offered to remodel the space, and ongoing income will
come from sales of bottled water, gourmet sauces and bath
and body products being distributed through her nonprofit
agency, Safe Havens for Little People.
A couple of women already have gotten help through the
Varian training program. One found a permanent job doing
janitorial work at the company, and the other, Misty Green
of Bay Point, has high hopes. Twenty-three, on welfare,
with two young children, she has been working in the café
for three months.
"My
mother was on welfare, my grandmother was on welfare,
so now I'm the first one breaking the cycle," says Green.
"I think it's been going cool. I just bought a car - I
haven't had one of those in a long time."
For Justice-Guard, the grant means validation. "It's a
reality. It's the best compliment that anyone could have
given to me, and I know that I'm OK.
