From the outside looking in, being in foster care might look easy because you have somewhere to stay, but really, inside, it feels like no one is there to love you, care about you, encourage you and really be there for you. There’s so much that foster care youth cannot do for themselves, but at a certain age it is decided that we should be able to and we are left on our own which results in homelessness or young people being in dangerous situations.

At one point in my life, I was out in the streets trying to make a life for myself.  It wasn’t working. I had been homeless for years. I graduated in 2015, I did not get into my first apartment until 2022, almost 7 years I was homeless. I knew that I was outgrowing the environment I was in and the lifestyle. I knew that I could become the person I realized I really could be.  I enrolled in Wake Tech’s Fostering Bright Futures program and they told me to go to the Hope Center for help.  Once I connected to the Hope Center, I was put in a safe place to stay. This allowed me to not have to go back into a human trafficking situation.

 At first, I was very unsure about meeting new people at HCP. I was worried about being dropped from the program and not meeting requirements. I was not open minded and had a fixed mindset where I was not really able to expand. Then, I was able to see that the staff at the Hope Center were really here to help me. It does not feel like they are just here to do a job. I was always reassured by the staff and always had someone checking on me, which caused me to feel cared for. There is so much support that it gives me space to identify who my true self is. This has allowed me the space I need to fulfill myself instead of looking outward for connections and relationships that were harmful to me. I feel like the Hope Center is more of a family to me than my family ever was.

Being stably housed means I no longer have to worry about where I am going to take a shower, how I am going to come up with money to pay for a hotel room, where I will sleep when I get off of work. It allows me the space that I need to focus on my goals and growing. I know that I can go to school and work because I have a safe environment. I have a voucher that supports my rent and gives me the room I need to work less hours so that I can go to school.

The biggest change is I am now the person I dreamed I could be, I can walk right past someone I knew from my past and they would not recognize me today. I talk different, walk different, think differently, and represent myself in a way that makes me proud of myself.