The Women's Center | County College of Morris (CCM) (2024)

When I came to the Women’s Center after the end of a 25 year abusive marriage, I was timid and shaken. My confidence was shattered and I had no idea where to begin to rebuild my life. I had been an at-home support to my husband’s career and had been raising five children. I didn’t know what else I could do. The Women’s Center helped me find my strengths and what I might do with those strengths. I was led to build upon the inner resources I already possessed, and I took courses that enhanced my background. The Self-Esteem Workshop helped to retrieve my confidence and showed me how self-reliant I was already becoming. It also offered practical steps to shore up time management and financial management skills, self-advocacy communications, and goal setting. This was invaluable. I gained strength and received encouragement as well as preparation from the resources available at the Center. The annual “Back on Track” celebration is a true testimony to the paths that The Women’s Center has helped to open for so many of us, and I am deeply grateful.

I have been utilizing the many resources from the Women’s Center at County College of Morris for several months. The center has been very helpful to me in regards to my search for a job with programs such as resume writing, and how to prepare for an interview. Those are just to name a few. The staff at the Women’s Center are extremely helpful as well as their guest speakers. I’m so grateful to them in helping me find a job and the many connections I have made.

I am very grateful for the resources I have found at the Women’s Center to help me move forward and build my confidence and the ability to support myself for the future. The center serves a very vulnerable population of women – needing a way out – with different socioeconomic, educational, ethnic backgrounds. The staff is amazing at handling this range of clients and addressing their specific needs with compassion and dedication. You gave me hope, encouraged me to press on, and feel worthy of the opportunities that fit my education and background despite my years of being a stay-at-home mom.

Since enrolling with the Women’s Center, I have come to look at my future and what matters most going forward. The job you all do is so important to those of us who come to you broken, lost, and in need of a lot of direction. You are such an amazing team who go out of your way to help us. I hope you all know the incredible impact you play in each of your client’s lives and are blessed 100 fold for all you do.

Moving to NJ to be closer to my family in the wake of divorce and cancer treatments left me without valuable support systems I began to establish in VA. I discovered The Women’s Center at CCM, and I’ll never forget walking out of my first meeting there with tears of relief and hope in my eyes. The net effect of my counselor’s insightful inquiry, career counseling, networking guidance, and concrete suggestions for jump-starting my new life was priceless. Attending a series of classes sponsored by the Center lead me to productive, self-sustaining employment. But perhaps more valuable than that concrete benefit was the benefit of renewed confidence and hope as I built my new life. Together, these benefits made a significant and truly immeasurable difference in my life.