Janel came to the Transitional Living Program when she was 17 years old. She was struggling day-to-day to find a place to eat, sleep and bathe. She left home after she was attacked by a man that was staying with her mother and younger sister. This man was a drug addict, as was her mother, and at the time of the attack her mother had transformed her home into a crack house. Janel was forced to live in a place where she was unsafe, as was her younger sister, and she was made to take care of her sibling because her mother would often leave the house for days, only to return and turn it into a crack house. Janel had to make the difficult decision of leaving her younger sister to find a better place for herself.

She found out about the Transitional Living Program through another agency she was involved with and applied. She was accepted to the program and began her journey to establishing for herself a stable and accepting environment. Janel struggled to maintain when she first entered into the program and often got into physical altercations with people she had “beef” with. This is the way that Janel learned to deal with difficult issues or intense emotions- she would fight. She worked extensively with the staff in the program and learned coping mechanisms that helped her to deal with overwhelming feelings without reacting physically towards others. She went from having at least one fight a week to being fight-free for almost 10 months.

Since entering into the program Janel has obtained her legal documents, which is an extremely difficult task for homeless youth because of the many hoops this population must jump through. Getting a state ID becomes a task that takes 6 months because of the other documents that are required in order to procure the ID. This was one of Janel’s long-standing goals- to obtain a state ID. When she finally received her state ID there was a mini-celebration to reward the persistence and effort that Janel showed in staying with the task even when it seemed there was no hope. This is one of the many things that many people take for granted- a task as simple as getting a state ID takes a huge effort of the part of homeless youth and the people that serve them.

Janel dropped out of school in the time that she spent on the streets after leaving her mother’s house because it was simply too difficult for her to continue attending school with no secure place to sleep, bathe or eat. She has since entered into a GED Program that offers credits towards college and she is excelling. She is extremely proud of her scholastic success because this is an area that she has struggled in. Janel plans on completing the Program and moving on to a Community College where she would like to study Business.

Since entering into the program Janel has most importantly found a safe place to be herself. She openly identifies as queer and she is in a place now where she is accepted for who she is. She has a stable and supportive environment that she has thrived in since arriving. It is our hope that we have instilled in Janel a sense of accomplishment and that this will continue when she moves on from our program.