Marie Prepares for Independent Living

Marie is eighteen.  She came from Memphis to Los Angeles for the same reason that many youth do.  She has dreams of becoming an actress one day. But she came out to Los Angeles by herself and with no set plan.  It wasn’t long until she found out pursuing dreams of that kind take time. This presented her with a problem: her money was quickly running out, and she had no place to stay.  “I could have gone back to Memphis, but I felt that I had gotten myself into this situation, and I wanted to get myself out of it.”

Without a place to stay, Marie  began to look into finding a shelter of some type. Luckily, she learned about Covenant House California (CHC).  She visited CHC’s Outreach program and was admitted into CHC’s crisis shelter almost immediately.  It was Marie’s first real experience with a shelter and she says she wasn’t sure what to expect. “I thought it was just going to be one large room with cots. I wasn’t expecting us to have actual beds.”

Marie quickly found that Covenant House California offered much more than a bed for her.  In addition to safe housing and three meals a day, CHC worked with Marie to form a case plan to help get her on the path to independent living.  CHC’s Employment Skills Program also helped Marie find work as well as assist her with applying for college.  She now has hopes of going to school to obtain her real estate license and has also begun to save money towards the goal of living independently someday.   

Marie still has dreams of becoming an actress but her dreams are now tempered with addressing the hard issues of living an independent life. She says that CHC has helped her find stability in her life.  “My self esteem is up since I’ve come here. Covenant House has changed my life.”

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