We first shared Anayancy’s journey and progress with Community Progress Council in 2021. Last fall, she earned her driver’s license and celebrated the launch of her own business, and we caught up with Anayancy and her family for an update. Below is her updated story, with the original story shared below.
For Anayancy, it’s always been about education, and family.
“I don’t want to be stuck in one place,” she said. “I want to grow and grow and grow. To see my kids say ‘Oh, my mom, she’s doing a good job.’”
Anayancy first connected with Community Progress Council through Head Start, when her 3 children — now adolescents — were enrolled in the early childhood education program, and she was a recent immigrant from Mexico.
“At first, I didn’t have any access to resources,” she said. “But I got hooked up to Community Progress Council, who did a good job of sharing the resources I needed.”
Her most recent goal was to find employment that would help support her family’s needs. But the factory jobs she was seeing were third shift, difficult for this mom of three. She instead took a job cleaning an office in an industrial park.
One day, she decided to knock on doors of surrounding offices in the complex, and asked if they needed someone to help clean. A larger company that owned many of the office spaces said yes.
“It started off casually, conversationally,” Anayancy said. “And I jumped in with both feet.”
Starting her own business was an endeavor. She had to create the structure for what she would charge, considering how long the job would take, whom she might have to work around, the cost of her supplies, and consideration for her profits. She started watching YouTube videos to see what other people were doing.
She started with 2 contracts.
Then her coach at Community Progress Council suggested a class from the York County Economic Alliance’s BLOOM Business Empowerment Center. The resources and information shared helped Anayancy strengthen her business planning, from acquiring her LLC and securing her no-impact permit from Hanover Borough, to setting aside income for taxes. ESL classes she had taken in the past helped her complete the BLOOM course in English.
“My coach keeps referring me to take other classes, and each time I get further and further ahead,” she said.
Rather than working 8, or 10, or 12 hours in a factory, Anayancy is able to contribute to her family’s income on a schedule that meets her needs.
In addition to being her own boss, Anayancy is gaining her independence in other ways, too. In December, she earned her driver’s license, enabling her to help with the drive when her family returned to Mexico for a period over the holidays.
“In Mexico, when a woman stays in the home and the husband brings in all the money, they call her a maintained woman,” Anayancy said. “I don’t want to be that. I want to be the one helping the family.”
Her added income has made an impact for her family. Her husband, who has worked in landscaping for 20-plus years, can work fewer hours. They’re able to send some money back to Mexico to make home improvements to her mother-in-law’s home, which is also where they stay when they visit.
“Before, we could only buy what we absolutely needed,” Anayancy said.
But now, they have a bit of the freedom that comes with disposable income: Going to the gas station for a slushie, or to the ice cream store.
It’s been a busy time to launch her business. In just a few months, she’s already grown to having 3 employees.
But her focus on education remains: She’s not losing sight of her goal to earn her GED.
“Before I started with Community Progress Council, I didn’t imagine having this change,” Anayancy said. “It’s just step by step, dream by dream. And then all of a sudden, I was here.”
She smiled.
“It’s like when I didn’t tell my husband I was going for my license [until I passed],” she said. “It was just work, work, work, and all of a sudden, here I am.”
We first shared Anayancy's journey and progress with Community Progress Council in 2021. Below is her original story.
Anayancy came to York County from Mexico with a dream to become independent and give her family a more secure future. Anayancy believes that education is the key to her family’s success in America, and has been enrolling in as many classes and workshops as she can through Community Progress Council to help bring her family to financial self-sufficiency.
Among the many courses she’s taken since being introduced to Community Progress Council include GED classes, ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, financial literacy classes, nutrition workshops and parenting classes. Anayancy is absorbing everything she can to see her dreams come to a reality.
One of Anayancy’s most recent accomplishments was the completion of CPC’s “Getting Ahead in a Just-Getting-By World” course, where participants are empowered to share their struggles, stories and goals with each other as a way to begin building resources and a foundation for financial stability.
As a next step, Anayancy has enrolled into CPC’s Self-Sufficiency Program, which pairs residents ready to make changes in their lives with a coach who will work with them long-term to create and achieve their goals. While Anayancy is just beginning on her years-long journey, her dream remains strong, and the benefits of her partnership with CPC and the education that she’s embraced has already had a strong impression on her.
“I don’t just see the days pass by or spend the days meaningless. Now, I’m busier and more feel meaningful, because I’m preparing for my future.”
Anayancy was part of CPC’s new Spanish-language “Getting Ahead” classes and is now working with a bilingual self-sufficiency coach – both important services that are now available to Spanish-speaking residents of York County.
Anayancy’s story is inspiring, and it all began through the connections she made through CPC’s Head Start program in Hanover, where her three children were enrolled in the no-cost early childhood education program. She volunteered in the classroom and worked with her family engagement specialist to connect with classes and other programs, and to help her realize that her goals could be achieved.
“I see my future with great achievements, like getting the GED diploma, having a better level of English, having a job, doing what I like, buying a car, paying for our house sooner, supporting my community.”