About
Our Mission
Transforming the lives of foster and at-risk pregnant and parenting teens and their children by providing access to education, and empowerment through community connections.
Our Vision
Making sure every woman and child knows they have a village, both physically and emotionally that supports and empowers.
Here at 7th Dream Helping Hearts, we are driven to strengthening our at-risk, low-income women and families. We strive to build healthy relationships and make a positive impact with all of our pursuits.
We are ready to create a real transformation in the lives of our teen parents!
About
My name is Shaniqua Hopkins
One evening I read in my T.D Jakes bible a quote. The best people to help others are not just those who studied life in a book. It is those who lived it out on the stage of reality. You will never be healed until you can use your pain to heal someone else. This spoke to me and why I started 7th Dream Helping Hearts.
I personally experienced life in foster care system. From 8 months old to 15 years old, I experienced some of the harsh realities of foster care. As a pre-teen I found myself running away often, in order to not be subjected to any abuse in which no one would protect me. This lead me to being homeless on a number of occasions and doing anything by any means necessary I needed to do to survive. Running away led me to be placed in a detention center. I begged my social worker to leave me there because that is where I felt safest at, behind bars. Ultimately, I was reunited with my mother at 15. Shockingly my birth mother requested that the social worker find somewhere else for me to be placed, but my mother’s residence was my last resort. At 15 I found myself pregnant with very little support so I turned to the community to prepare me for parenthood/adulthood. I attended a school for teen moms. A lot of my peers looked to me for support and guidance. At the age of 18 I began my relationship on the other side of the foster care system with kinship of my cousin that was 17 years old. A few years down the line I was trusted with her children and 2 others a few years after. Today as a mother of seven I remember sitting in those group homes telling myself I am going to open a home when I get older and girls will never have to deal with my reality.
This is why I founded 7th Dream Helping Hearts!