“As a social worker, opportunities to make a difference in people’s lives are limitless. “I got my feet wet in an internship with Your New Beginning. It’s for people with court-ordered counseling for drug offenses or...
“We’ve been homeless, and we’ve gone without. There were so many times that our food budget for every two weeks was $50. So we know what it’s like. We’ve always helped people through outreach, but we...
When I met Joshua Johnson six years ago, it was outside a Baytown motel. He was staying there temporarily. He said at the time, “I was living at an RV park. Me and my friend were...
“When you’re on the street by yourself, it feels pretty worthless. I don’t want to be here. It gets very lonely. I’ve been very depressed. I cry myself to sleep every night. I just wish I...
“If it was not for what I’d gone through, then I couldn’t do what I do now. I’m what’s called a mental health and addiction recovery peer support specialist. Simply by the word peer, it means...
“The first time I started coming to this church, I just let a few little things get to me, and I fell right back into the old me. I was having a hard time reading the...
“After all I’ve been through, I’m fortunate to be here alive today. I’ve had heart surgery. I’ve been shot multiple times. I’ve lost close friends. It got to the point where I didn’t care about life...
“I grew up with messed-up feet. They were real club-footed, like turned in. To help fix them, I had to wear these casts that went all the way up my legs. When I was 8, they...
“On my way to work, I would see homeless people every day. Especially during the winter months, I would see them living in cardboard boxes under bridges and sometimes on sidewalks. I’ve bought food for a...
“I would like to help start a program, a housing thing, where people who were ready to get off the streets could come in and have like 10 to 14 days to get acclimated. They would...
