Thank you for supporting Cincinnati Union Bethel in Cincinnati, Ohio. Your contribution provided Eliza with a week of emergency housing. Eliza explains: “My mom had problems with drinking and so did my step-dad. I saw what it had done to my mom and I didn’t want that so I stayed away from it.” It did not occur to Eliza that drugs could be harmful in similar ways. By 13 she had started smoking marijuana to deal with the emotional hardship of growing up in a family of alcoholics. Over time, Eliza began to use other drugs too, but a caring husband and the birth of two children helped her kick the habit.

Years later Eliza relapsed and things got worse. She lost her job and turned to panhandling to support her family. While she was panhandling, men offered to pay her more to work the streets. The prostitution eventually replaced the panhandling as her economic means of survival and her addiction worsened.  Eliza says that her drug habit cost her everything: her husband, kids, and home.  For the next two years she was homeless.

Today, as part of Off the Streets^SM, a Cincinnati Union Bethel program, Eliza has been sober for 60 days and is focusing on learning how to process her emotions instead of mask them with drugs. She has also been granted supervised visitation with her children.

One of her favorite things about Off the Streets^SM is having a roof over her head. “It’s amazing,” Eliza reflects. “The days I’m most often temped to use again it is usually snowing or raining. When that happens I open the window to feel the outside. I think what it would be like to be living in that again. Then I go take a hot shower and use soap and shampoo with good smells. I do it because when I was outside there were so many days I couldn’t shower.”

Thanks to you, Eliza now has a room to live in and a shower to give her the encouragement she needs to commit to a healthier way of life.

As a child, Grace had trouble learning. This was compounded by an abusive mother who used to keep her home from school to prostitute her. Consequently, Grace never learned how to read, and by 18 she was abusing drugs. After years of being on the streets and homeless in Cincinnati, Ohio, Grace joined Off the Streets^SM, a Cincinnati Union Bethel program, and today she has been sober for eight months. She has been able to receive much-needed dental treatment, medication to help her cope with the night-terrors she has as the result of the childhood sexual abuse, and a tutor to help her learn how to read and write.

Grace credits OTS with helping her make positive life changes.  She says, “Off the Streets^SM teaches you how to keep your self-esteem up . . . it taught me how to take care of myself, to respect myself . . . Everything about here really changed my life. I would tell any lady out there that needs this help they need to come here because it’s really safe here.” Thank you Bob, Christina, Eleanor, and Carmen for providing Grace with the support she needed to learn to read, write, and embark on a new life.

Ava, a resident of Cincinnati, sneaked her first sip of alcohol from her parents’ liquor cabinet with a friend when she was 12. She says, “Anytime I felt mad, sad, angry, ashamed, embarrassed, or anything, I would try to mask those feelings with alcohol so I could escape. And, of course, alcohol wasn’t doing it anymore so it progressed into pills, opiates, oxycontin, and then the crack cocaine, which brought me to my knees.”

After years of using drugs, Ava tried to commit suicide and ended up staying overnight in a hospital psych ward. Upon her release, Ava went downtown to score drugs. Ava explains that is when she turned to prostitution: “For five or six days I was up the whole time just selling myself for drugs.  I never thought I would be that grimy and disgusting… walking the street and getting into a car and not knowing if it will be the police or if someone will hurt you or what’s gonna happen. That was probably the worst period of my life because I felt so disgusting, dirty, and ugly. I completely hated myself for what I was doing and I knew I was hurting my parents ’cause I was gone. They didn’t know where I was.”

Ava’s tumultuous week ended in arrest. The judge recommended Cincinnati Union Bethel’s Off the Streets^SM program and from there Ava’s life took a drastic turn. The program helped Ava obtain a much needed medical checkup, from which she discovered she was pregnant.

Ava credits her work with the Off the Streets^SM program with helping her stay sober during her pregnancy. “The facilitators here really care about us and want us to succeed. When they put that much trust and belief in us then we start to believe in ourselves too. It’s hard to put into words how it makes you feel because it’s just so awesome.”

Today Ava is sober and busy preparing for motherhood.  She just found that she will have a permanent place to stay in time for her baby’s arrival. Thank you, Sierra, Lesley, Kandace, Richard, and Microsoft, for providing Ava with the opportunity to be the type of mom she wants to be — free of drugs, loving, and ready to face the future.

By her mid-twenties Elaine seemed to have it all–four children, a home, and a husband with a good job as a police officer. From the outside everything was great, but on the inside Elaine felt something was missing, so Elaine began hanging out, trying to be “part of the crowd.”  She started using drugs, believing she wouldn’t become addicted.

She did, and eventually she lost her home and kids. Ultimately, Elaine spent ten years on the streets. “I was doing what I had to do to survive,” she explains.  After a decade Elaine was tired and ready to change her life when she met an outreach coordinator from Off the Streets^SM.

Elaine credits Off the Streets^SM with helping her secure food, a place to stay, and an ID.  She says that the program “helped with all the things you need to be part of society.”  The program may have provided Elaine with the basics but she is working hard to create her own successes in life.  Elaine secured a part time job and has been sober over five months.  She says that she is “trying to get a foundation built so when I get out [graduate from the program] I can build a better life without drugs or prostitution–I’m building self-esteem.”

Today, having it all means something very different to Elaine.  It means an appreciation of life: “God has blessed me with so much.  I probably had it [before] but didn’t see it because of drugs.”

Thank you for helping Elaine change her life.

Renee wasn’t allowed to cry or speak as a child; her mother would beat her if she did because “a child should be seen and not heard.” Renee’s mother neglected and abused her, but her worst trauma was being sexually abused by an uncle, beginning when she was four. Although Renee was placed in a foster home, she eventually ended up back with her mother. When Renee was fifteen, her mother forced her to marry a twenty-one year old so she could give up her parental rights.

Renee’s life took a turn for the better a year later when she fell in love with a man of her choosing. They spent the next decade together raising two boys and leading a relatively normal life.  However, Renee hadn’t worked through the effects of her childhood abuse and these buried emotions came to the surface when her father died and a friend committed suicide.

In order to cope, Renee began to drink, which led to cocaine use and a suicide attempt. She forfeited her parental rights to her husband, and her drug use escalated.

Addicted to heroin, Renee got involved in prostitution to support her habit. One winter night, Renee remembers having no coat and being sick from withdrawal symptoms. She curled up in the woods to hide. “It was a sick, scary feeling,” she recalls. In order to stay warm, Renee stole a car. The theft led to jail time and eventually to Off the Streets^SM.

Today, at 32, Renee has been sober for over a year. She has filed her paperwork for housing and should have her own apartment in the next couple weeks. She is part of a job training program, and she has reconnected with her sons, whom she sees on the weekends.

She is eager now to tell her story, having kept quiet for so long. She says, “Off the Streets^SM has taught me a lot about self worth and confidence. “The counselors care for us and I have a sense of family with the other women.”

Thank you for helping Renee speak out and cope with her past so that she may now focus on the future. As she says, “I don’t look at things as a victim; I try to look at the positive and just move on.”  Thank you!

Years ago, Lana lived in the suburbs and owned her own condo for 14 years.  She was quiet.  If you passed her on the street, you would guess she was like anyone else.

Lana’s unassuming exterior contrasted remarkably with what was going on in her life.  Pain pill use had become an addiction.  She “shopped” doctors, looking for ones who would prescribe her drugs, and when that didn’t work, she tried to get her fix from emergency rooms.   Eventually she turned to prostitution to support her habit.  In October 2010, Lana found that she had her lost her condo and any semblance of a normal life because of her addiction.  The condo was a source of pride for Lana; losing it and having no place to live proved to be a turning point.  She sought treatment for her addiction.

Today, at 47, Lana may not have a condo, but she has a new life. She has a room to call her own, the support of the other woman in the Off the Streets^SM program, and 14 months sobriety to celebrate. Lana explains why she likes her new home so much: “I feel safe here . . . I love all the girls here.  You always have someone to talk to.”

Thank you for giving Lana the sense of safety and community she needed to turn her life around.

Mary was the youngest of ten children – seven girls and three boys – growing up in Ohio.  Today, at 48, she has already lost two brothers, one to addiction.  Mary knows she could have died herself, becoming another loss for her family. 

When Mary was in the sixth grade, a volleyball teammate gave her an upper to try and that started her long path of drugs.  In junior high and high school, she used marijuana and drank.  By the time she was 17, she had two children and had dropped out of school.  Over the years, she did whatever she had to do to support her children, including hustling and selling drugs.  In her 30’s, she started smoking crack, and that is how she finally ended up on the streets, where she spent five years. 

She heard about Off the Streets^SM from other addicts at a food pantry and called one of the facilitators.  She has been sober for four months.  She also reconnected with her family – her own children and her remaining brother and sisters.  One of the most exciting aspects of reconnecting has been getting to know her five-year old grandson. 

On this winter day, Mary sits in her donated winter coat.  She remembers how cold the streets were and she quiets for a moment.  She says, “I am most grateful for this program.  And I am willing to give back what was freely given to me.  This program has saved my life.”  Mary hopes to graduate in the spring.  To that end, she has a job interview lined up, and has been approved for housing.  Long term, she is interested in earning her GED. 

Thank you so much Jun for providing Mary the opportunity to change her life and reconnect with her family!

Kristin started experimenting with alcohol and marijuana at 13, but her addiction took hold of her life once she began using opiates.  Eventually, she found herself in a cycle of drug abuse and her goal became getting high.  By the time another agency referred Kirstin to Off the Streets^SM in 2011, she had lost custody of her four children and had spent about five years on the streets.

Today, Kristin, at 32, is sober and active in the program.  As a result of her drug-free lifestyle, she was able to take her daughter ice skating, which was the first time they had seen each other in five years. Kristin understands that building relationships with her other children will take time, and she will have to make sure her sobriety “sticks” in order to do so.

Kirstin is excited about the impact Off the Streets^SM has had on her life.  She says the counseling and educational support, like the essay she wrote on saying goodbye to her drug of choice, has been beneficial because “getting it out and getting it on paper, [is] getting rid of baggage.”

Kirstin’s hopes sobriety will help her achieve her goals: earning her GED, going back to school, getting her children back in her life, and ultimately securing “a safe place for me and my children to be.”

Thank you, Jun, for providing Kirstin the support and services she needs to reach her goals.

When Rachel, an abuse victim, was eleven years old, her aunt gave her pills to help her sleep and deal with anxiety and pain.  This led to an addiction to opiates.  At sixteen, Rachel’s father was put in prison.  With an alcoholic mother, Rachel didn’t have anyone looking after her.  She dropped out of school and started running around.  She was using heroin, dealing drugs and hustling.  For the next twenty years, Rachel had six children and overdosed four times.  The last time she tried to commit suicide, it didn’t work and instead she checked herself into rehab.  Rachel was able to come to Off the Streets^SM through rehab. 

Today, Rachel has been sober for six months and is pursuing her GED.  She also now has her own apartment and five of her children visit every weekend.  In a month, Rachel will gain custody of four of them.  Through Off the Streets^SM she has been connected to mental health services to get help with a diagnosed mental health illness.  After she gets her GED, Rachel plans to study social work. 

Probably the biggest change is Rachel’s outlook.  She says, “I am proud of myself.  I struggle, but I don’t take from people.  I just do without.  That is a big difference from what I was like before.  Now, I am learning to love myself.” 

When she was just a child, Rachel had one struggle after another and she spent years hurting herself.  Thanks to supporters like you, she now has the strength to look forward and focus on her family.  Thank you all so much for helping Rachel fight the odds!

Brenda was 15 years old when she ran away from home in Cincinnati, Ohio.  She didn’t know there were places she could go for help, so she started trading sex for food and a place to stay.  Eventually she was addicted to crack and trapped in her addiction.  Brenda spent 25 years on the streets trying to survive.  “I’ve been raped, beaten and disrespected,” she says.  She had a friend who was in the Off the Streets^SM program and encouraged her to join the program too.

The Off the Streets^SM program, she says, “has taught me how to be accountable, how to get up early, how to dress.  It has taught me about responsibilities and that I can’t dwell on the past.  I have to focus on the future.”

Brenda believes her future is looking brighter.  She wants to be dependent on herself.  She got a job cleaning at the football stadium after NFL games.  “I can’t tell you the joy I felt at getting my first paycheck.  To cash it . . . money I earned that was legal.  It was very special.”  She is planning to go back for her GED, and she’d like to do volunteer work, telling her story to help other young women.

Likewise, Brenda likes helping the new women who join the program.  She says she tries to make them more comfortable.  “We used to put on masks to deal with the streets,” she says, “and you have to take those masks off here.  You have to learn to be yourself so you can like yourself, so I try to make them feel more at ease.  I know how hard it is.”

Thank you so much for giving Brenda the opportunity to get off of the streets after 25 years.