Wake Up Dreams.   Meet Challenges.  Reach Goals.

I was born a preacher’s kid, which is a label in and of itself.  On my 10th birthday we were moving into our fourth state.  In my late teens and with no thought of leaving church, the complexities of life led me from the church to the streets.  Later in life I went back to the church, but with an insight of “it is not me and them, but us”. For God so loved the world, sometime we forget.

In two different states, my labor of love started as I worked with women in domestic violence situations.  I witnessed the cycle of so many choosing a lifestyle that involved going back to their abuser believing they couldn’t make it on their own. From there working in homeless shelters providing care for individuals who lost hope or had their hope taken from them, I understood.

 
For about four years, being a social worker in one city, my title was Intake Worker.  I was the person anyone applies for benefits spoke with initially. In this position I listened to the stories that bought them to this place in life.  Before going to Department of Social Services, eight years of my life was as a counselor at a private psychiatric hospital.  I always said my job there would afford me two things and God gave me both:  out-patient therapy (not literally) and a paycheck at the same time.  It was there I saw first-hand how one’s identity is truly taken, especially by the people we trust.