Omunique P

Omunique is twenty-one and the mother of two young children. She lives at home with her mother and stepfather and receives cash assistance and Food Stamps. Her Food Stamps go towards the family budget because she lives with her mother and is under 22 years old. Omunique is eager to get a job but is held back by the fact that she doesn’t have her high school diploma—according to Omunique, she had finished all of her requirements for graduation but girls in her school attacked her and they ended up in a fight. She was prohibited from graduating and her diploma was withheld, and the GED program that Welfare recently sent her to didn’t teach her what she needed to take the test.  

Omunique would like to go into law or law enforcement, probably because she is troubled by the violence in her own neighborhood. She was recently harassed by a group of women on her block who broke her window to get her to come outside to fight—which she did, fearing for the safety of her children if she stayed inside the house. She thinks the violence in her neighborhood stems from the fact that young people have limited options for education or mobility and turn to fighting to express their frustrations. Omunique would like to get out of her neighborhood so her children can grow up in a more peaceful environment, but her limited income prevents her from living independently.