Love shouldn't mean pain and violence.

It's a lesson that Reba wanted her daughters to learn. It's a lesson that the YWCA's Family Village helped her teach them.

One night, the man who had abused Reba for five years choked her as her two little girls watched. Although it meant they would be homeless, she worked up the courage to leave.

"My decision was either to leave or to stay with him and let my daughters grow up thinking this is the way that people in love with each other relate to each other," Reba recalls.

Family Village provided a temporary home along with an employment resource center that helped Reba develop a résumé, learn computer skills and search for a job. The YWCA's Working Wardrobe program even gave her professional clothes to wear to interviews. Meanwhile, the kids enjoyed safety and stability at Family Village.

Now employed and feeling "like a brand new person," Reba is grateful for the lesson in courage she's been able to teach her girls.

"They don't have to worry about mom anymore. They focus on being children now. And that makes me very happy."