Once homeless Harvey woman turns personal struggles into support for low-income families
With 3 dresses and a dream, Jordan Cain launches the Victoria Project
It's been six years since Jordan Cain was homeless and struggled with substance use.
Today, the Harvey woman has turned her life around.
She is the founder of the Victoria Project, which aims to support low-income families and individuals with donations and other services.
Cain said she decided to start the project because of her love for community service, rooted in her own personal experiences growing up in a low-income family and ultimately becoming homeless.
Cain started doing outreach from a young age, helping in her school's breakfast club in middle school and part of high school.
Even while homeless, Cain said, she continued to help others, buying food when possible and sharing any extra supplies she had.
"If it wasn't for people giving [to] us, I would have nothing," she said. "It would've been a totally different childhood, and totally different life for me and my family.
"So if I can make one family not have to go through stuff like that, then I've done something and I can die happy."
Under the Victoria Project, Cain runs four programs. When she launched in April, it started with Cinderella's Closet, a free formal-wear rental service that she runs from a shed at her home in Harvey, about 41 kilometres southwest of Fredericton.
It lends clothes to women who can't afford to buy their own.
"It doesn't matter if it's for your Grade 8 formal, or just the school dance and you want to wear something nice, and you don't [have] something in your closet," she said.
"Come check it out, there's something you can borrow."
Cain's project began with three dresses and has since expanded to about 85. The service now also includes shoes, as well as hair and makeup, offering a complete package.
So far, she has helped five girls go to prom, a bride get her dream wedding dress, and a wedding party get bridesmaid dresses.
The other three programs Cain runs are Families Helping Families, a Christmas sponsorship program; Vicki's Room, a fundraising shop that sells second-hand brand-name items to finance her projects, and the Fleiger Outreach Program, which provides baskets of essential items to homeless people.
Cain has collected donations for 10 families to make their Christmas celebrations possible, and has collected baby essentials to help prepare three low-income families for their newborns.
Cain said she has always loved to help people and is happy that she's now in a position to do so.
"If it wasn't for [sponsors] I wouldn't have had a Christmas like, just about any year at all," she said. "If I can help another family get that feeling for their kids, then at least I've done something right."
Cain works with her sister Janisha and her fiancé to collect donations, drop off baskets and collect materials to alter dresses, but said the Victoria Project would not have been possible without Victoria Fleiger, her best friend.
Cain said Fleiger had been there for her when she was struggling with addiction, and her friendship helped her leave that life behind.
"When I went off, we ended up losing touch and not being friends for a little while because I didn't like what she had to say to me," Cain said. "But I got thinking about it and it was like, 'Maybe she is right.'"
Cain said Fleiger never said anything mean.
"She was just telling me, like, 'You are not going to be here if you don't stop. I know you are going through stuff right now, but you need to smarten up and get out of this before other people get hurt.'"
Fleiger, however, was also struggling with her own addiction and died earlier this year.
Cain decided to name the project in her honour.
With the growth the project has experienced in the past three months, Cain said she would like to continue developing her current initiatives and make the Victoria Project her long-term career.
"When I can make somebody else smile … or know that they don't have to worry, then it just makes me feel whole."
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