Chris Gardner, author of the New York Times bestseller The Pursuit of Happyness, speaks to the breakfast attendees.

On Thursday, October 20, ten women from Bain Capital had the opportunity to attend the 18th Annual Horizons for Homeless Children Women’s Breakfast with the goal of “changing lives before lunch.”

It was an inspirational morning, and attendees had the opportunity to hear from a mother whose life was changed because of the services Horizons was able to provide for her and her daughter.

Attendees also heard from Chris Gardner, author of the New York Times bestseller The Pursuit of Happyness which served as the inspiration for the movie with the same title. After disappointing the room, letting everyone know Will Smith would not show up, Mr. Gardner shared his own story of homelessness as a single dad and his fight to give his son a better life. With his infectious laugh and tear-jerking story, Mr. Gardner gave everyone present the feeling that truly anything is possible with some guts and a lot of hard work. But no one should have to go it alone, and that’s where Horizons for Homeless Children comes in.

Horizons is so much more than a daycare center. The team works with homeless children to close the learning and development gap, provides play spaces in homeless shelters that reflect the needs of children experiencing trauma, provides support to parents to help them reclaim their independence and leave the shelter system and reduces the complexity of support systems to make it easier for families to access the services they need.

To learn more about Horizons for Homeless Children, visit http://horizonschildren.org/.