This is one of a series of stories about the nonprofit agencies that receive money from The Gazette/El Pomar Foundation Empty Stocking Fund campaign that runs through the holidays.

Rani Archuleta was scared. It was the summer of 2012, and she had just given birth to her fifth child, had fled an unhealthy relationship and was behind in the rent.

Her elderly landlord wasn’t pressuring her for the money, but she was pressuring herself.

“He needed a good tenant. I needed to break all the cycles of co-dependence.”

She gave notice and applied for help from Partners in Housing. The nonprofit, which runs 65 transitional housing units, had no openings for her size family.

“A relative took us in. But a week later, Partners called,” she said. “They had an opening. It was divine intervention.”

She was nervous that the rental would be subpar or in an unsafe neighborhood, but it turned out to be a homey condo on the west side. Tenants pay rent for Partners’ housing based on income and can stay while they go through a 12-month program that helps them get on their feet.

Archuleta, who was 32 at the time, received budget and life skills counseling.

Divulging her financial situation was one of the hardest things she had to do. “I felt like a huge failure.”

But she received encouragement and was given the opportunity to take a Dave Ramsey Financial University class and began to pay her debts.

The Partners counselors had her create an action plan that included taking care of legal issues that she had been fearful to tackle. She filed for divorce and requested child support.

She learned to take time for herself, to focus on health and activities. She created a more structured household, including chores for the kids. She loved the Partners thrift store, which helped her furnish her new place.

She had been working in a day care center because she could keep her baby there. But hours were long and pay low. Her counselor encouraged her to return to her original profession, cosmetology, which she liked and which was more family flexible and paid more. She worked on her debt and saved $1,000. A matching grant from another agency enabled her to buy hairstyling tools for her new salon job.

She now has her own apartment and is getting advanced training through her job.

“I still face challenges, but now I know how to deal with them. I have so much gratitude for the time spent in the program and the staff who believed in me.”