|
|
Sucess Stories
These
two Ruths spend a lot ot time together. They've become family. "Our
friends call us Ruth One and Ruth Two," they say.
Ruth One had a stroke in
1990. "After the stroke," says Ruth One, fighting back tears, "it
all ended. I came home and I sold the car..."
Caring Callers provides
willing volunteers who spend a few hours a week with homebound people
such as Ruth One. Ruth Two is one of those kind volunteers. |
 |
 |
Bonnie
has a lot of reasons to smile. She just received her first paycheck.
She's learning how to cook, to dance, and other skills
Bonnie has schizophrenia,
plus mental retardation. Since enrolling in Escuela del Rio, she has
made a lot of progress by letting loose of her frustrations about
things she can't change. She accepts more responsibility and is having
fun. |
Doug
tried to stop the pain... He jumped off buildings, drove off a pier
in the middle of the night. "I could have died from the things I did,
but I did them to ease the pain."
"Every mentally ill patient
has a real potential to end up out on the street," Doug says. "Programs
like Transitions are helping to keep them off the street." |
 |
 |
Roberta
is building a new life. While staying at the Women's Shelter, Roberta
needed help starting a new life. She needed a safe home for her family
and she needed a job to support them all.
People's Self-Help Housing
Corporation provided her the opportunity for both. Roberta is now
the resident manager of a new low-cost apartment complex and with
her daughters, is building a new life. |
I was
actually at my wits' end." Jim was faced with decisions that seemed
beyond his ability. "That's when Hospice became really important to
me...they recognize the family as being the whole unit of care, that
everybody is affected by the illness."
There are a lot of people
who don't have this support. I'm just an average guy. I never thought
I was one to volunteer, but it was so important to my family, I thought,
Well, If I can help somebody else... It's nothing specific;
it's just the idea that people care about other people. It's just
that simple. Jim is now a Hospice volunteer. |
 |
 |
For
several months, Mary slept under bushes on the dunes by the ocean.
Mary started drinking a long time ago. "But it got away from me,"
she says.
"The part that brought me
to Casa Solana was that I lost everybody in my life. I lost my kids,
my husband, and finally my sister. I thought 'I'm just a throw-away
person.'"
"Everything I've done sober
has been a new experience," Mary says. "I see sunshine, the different
colors, and feel the air. I don't have a lot of money, but I have
beauty! That's a gift!" |
| Beth
is four. She is developmentally delayed due to Downs Syndrome. "We've
been in the Lekotek program almost since Beth was born. One thing
really valuable about Lekotek is that it focuses on support for the
whole family; it's not just an intervention program focused on the
person with the disability." |
 |
 |
Dena
lived in a tent near a freeway off-ramp for two years. Then two things
happened: she got GiGi, her puppy, and she encountered the Salvation
Army.
"If Salvation Army hadn't
helped me, I would have been right back on the street. I couldn't
have done it myself." |
| Olga
runs a successful child care center. She's not done it alone, in fact
she had a lot to learn. When Olga enrolled in an Economic Opportunity
Commission program, she did not know how to run a child care center.
She also did not speak English. Now she has mastered English, operates
a respected child care center and studies at Cuesta College. As a
single mother, "I don't know what I would have done. The EOC was always
there for me." |
 |
 |
Graduating
from college was one of the toughest things Pam ever did. She has
mild cerebral palsy and epilepsy. "I've learned to deal with them
and move on to accomplish many things" she says. "I come to work
every day and know I'm a success." says Pam. She works as a client
of the Achievement House program.
"At Mailing & More we're
showing the community that, Hey! We're a part of you. We may be a
little different, but we're still a part of you." |
|
|
