Download or read book My Life and Journey from Homelessness and beyond written by James E. Wise and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is inspired by the true story of my life and journey from homelessness and beyond. It’s an inspiring story of courage, tragedy, adventure, perseverance, determination, resilience, faith, and redemption. The story is about my life in the beginning, growing up, surviving the fire incident, and early demise of my three sisters. Life without my father, fear of my mother, and life in the navy. I suffered thirty years from low self-esteem, fear, anger, resentments, worthlessness, loneliness, hopelessness, homelessness, substance abuse, failed attempts to maintain employment, mental institutions, churches, shelters, jails, bad relationships, and marriages too! I walked in the kingdom of darkness (Hell) for thirty years determined to find myself; I finally made a final decision to get my life on track once and for all! One day, I evaluated my entire life as far as I could remember. I began to peel off the layers of my unresolved issues like a banana. I confronted the tragic death of my three sisters, which I honestly haven’t done before, for closure purposes. I confronted the anger and resentments I harbored toward my mother for her failures, including my father for abandoning me. I was angry with myself for my history of substance abuse and homelessness, also for not reaching out for help in the beginning when I should have done so. I completed an intense, detailed evaluation of my life one day. I began to cry until I was all cried out. I had enough faith to pray to God at the time. I asked God to renew in me a new heart and spirit to serve him. To be the man that he intended me to be. After I finished praying, I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. This was my defining moment and the turning point of my life. I began to see light at the end of the tunnel! I began to seek treatment for my depression and PTSD. I attended (NA) meetings. I began to read and apply the word of God in my life daily. The wounds of my past miraculously began to heal. Over a period of time, my wife noticed an internal transformation taking place in my life! I began to forgive everyone who done me wrong, including my worst enemy of all, myself! Today, I live a life of purpose, not defeat, drug free and living one day at a time. I was compelled to write my life and journey from homelessness and beyond in hopes that my story may convey to anyone who may be struggling with their personal giants, especially the homeless; there is hope!!! You can make it. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to have gotten the help I needed. There are good people in the world. I’m a veteran who enlisted and was honorably discharged from both, the US Navy from 1986 to 1991, and the Army reserve from 1992 to 2000. Today, I currently serve as an enlisted soldier in the Army of the Lord!

Download or read book Beyond Homelessness written by Steven Bouma-Prediger and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2008-06-03 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a brilliant use of metaphor that makes clear why the world leaves us feeling so uneasy!

Download or read book The Blind Side Evolution of a Game written by Michael Lewis and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Story of Michael Oher, a rising gridiron star, who was rescued from the ghettos of Memphis and placed with a wealthy family to help develop his football skills.

Download or read book Sacred Shelter written by Susan Celia Greenfield and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An inside look at an interfaith program for the homeless in New York City, including in-depth stories of those who have graduated and made new lives. In a metropolis like New York, homelessness can blend into the urban landscape. For Susan Greenfield, however, New York is the place where a community of resilient, remarkable individuals is yearning for a voice. Sacred Shelter follows the lives of thirteen formerly homeless people, all of whom have graduated from an interfaith life skills program for current and former homeless individuals in the city. Through interviews, these individuals share traumas from their youth, their experience with homelessness, and the healing they’ve discovered through community and faith. Edna Humphrey talks about losing her grandparents, father, and sister to illness, accident, and abuse. Lisa Sperber discusses her bipolar disorder and her whiteness. Dennis Barton speaks about his unconventional path to becoming a first-generation college student and his journey to reconnect with his family. The memoirists share stories about youth, family, jobs, and love. They describe their experiences with racism, mental illness, sexual assault, and domestic violence. Each of the thirteen storytellers honestly expresses his or her broken-heartedness and how finding community and faith gave them hope to carry on. Interspersed are reflections from program directors, clerics, mentors, and volunteers, including the cofounder of the program. While Sacred Shelter does not tackle the socioeconomic conditions and inequities that cause homelessness, it provides a voice for a demographic group that continues to suffer from systemic injustice and marginalization.

Download or read book This Is All I Got written by Lauren Sandler and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • From an award-winning journalist, a poignant and gripping immersion in the life of a young, homeless single mother amid her quest to find stability and shelter in the richest city in America LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD • “Riveting . . . a remarkable feat of reporting.”—The New York Times Camila is twenty-two years old and a new mother. She has no family to rely on, no partner, and no home. Despite her intelligence and determination, the odds are firmly stacked against her. In this extraordinary work of literary reportage, Lauren Sandler chronicles a year in Camila’s life—from the birth of her son to his first birthday—as she navigates the labyrinth of poverty and homelessness in New York City. In her attempts to secure a safe place to raise her son and find a measure of freedom in her life, Camila copes with dashed dreams, failed relationships, the desolation of abandonment, and miles of red tape with grit, humor, and uncanny resilience. Every day, more than forty-five million Americans attempt to survive below the poverty line. Every night, nearly sixty thousand people sleep in New York City-run shelters, 40 percent of them children. In This Is All I Got, Sandler brings this deeply personal issue to life, vividly depicting one woman's hope and despair and her steadfast determination to change her life despite the myriad setbacks she encounters. This Is All I Got is a rare feat of reporting and a dramatic story of survival. Sandler’s candid and revealing account also exposes the murky boundaries between a journalist and her subject when it becomes impossible to remain a dispassionate observer. She has written a powerful and unforgettable indictment of a system that is often indifferent to the needs of those it serves, and that sometimes seems designed to fail. Praise for This Is All I Got “A rich, sociologically valuable work that’s more gripping, and more devastating, than fiction.”—Booklist “Vivid, heartbreaking. . . . Readers will be moved by this harrowing and impassioned call for change.”—Publishers Weekly “A closely observed chronicle . . . Sandler displays her journalistic talent by unerringly presenting this dire situation. . . . An impressive blend of dispassionate reporting, pungent condemnation of public welfare, and gritty humanity.” —Kirkus Reviews

Download or read book I Beat The Odds written by Michael Oher and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The football star made famous in the hit film (and book) The Blind Side reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth. Michael Oher shares his personal account of his story, in this inspirational New York Times bestseller. Looking back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, Michael talks about the goals he had to break out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family. Eventually he grasped onto football as his ticket out and worked hard to make his dream into a reality. With his adoptive family, the Touhys, and other influential people in mind, he describes the absolute necessity of seeking out positive role models and good friends who share the same values to achieve one's dreams. Sharing untold stories of heartache, determination, courage, and love, I Beat the Odds is an incredibly rousing tale of one young man's quest to achieve the American dream.

Download or read book Skid Road written by Josephine Ensign and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brother's Keeper -- Skid Road -- The Sisters -- Ark of Refuge -- Shacktown -- Threshold -- State of Emergency -- Epilogue.

Download or read book Beyond Shelters written by James Hughes and published by James Lorimer & Company. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newspapers, television and films cast homeless shelters as places of desperation, sadness and sickness. However, over the last 25 years, homeless shelters have changed dramatically. Shelters have become more professional and sophisticated in addressing homelessness in their communities. They now do much more than provide a bed and a meal for the night — they offer different methods of intervention, different types of services and different forms of connection to the communities they serve. This book offers essays by experienced shelter managers who address the future of the homeless shelter in Canada. This diverse collection also includes a chapter by Dr. Sam Tsemberis, the father of the successful Housing First Model. There are contributions by leaders in the homelessness field from across Canada, who have been at the forefront of developing unique services for women, youth, Indigenous people, and families. The days of shelters serving to merely warehouse homeless people out of sight and mind are being replaced by specialized approaches that are reducing homelessness in Canada. The contributors have years of experience understanding the causes of and solutions to homelessness and the role that shelters can play in achieving their ultimate goal — the elimination of all forms of homelessness in Canada.

Download or read book Welcome Homeless written by Alan Graham and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homeless. No other word better describes our modern-day suffering. It reveals one of our deepest and most painful conditions—not having a sense of belonging. However, Alan Graham, founder of Mobile Loaves & Fishes and Community First! Village, is improving the quality of life for a large quantity of people through sharing his personal story of becoming more human through humanizing others. Graham believes the more we can give people dignity, the power of choice, and genuine community, the better we’ll be able to offer solutions that will have impact on the world at large. And while his missionary work is focused on giving a home to the physically homeless, he also wants to transform the lives of every living person by shifting the paradigm in understanding what it means to be “home.” In Welcome Homeless, Graham delves deep into what it means to be connected to God, the earth, and each other. In doing so, he shows us the home we’ve all longed for but never had. Welcome Homeless is about becoming fully human by being fully present. It is about finally connecting with the disconnected and finding our identity through knowing the true identity of others. Graham wants to engrain the human story in you so deeply that you start being who you were made to be—that you start finally being like the image from which you were made and start empathizing instead of sympathizing with the people around you. Similar to how we can become 100 percent fully human by mimicking the ultimate image, we can shape a better world by mimicking the picture of the new heaven and the new earth—a picture that has reality at the heart of it but is beyond our imagination. Alan Graham also shares his personal story, the stories of the homeless, and the stories of those whose worldviews have been shifted by the homeless. Because of his raw, humorous, and honest voice, he achieves a rare and profound universality. Houses become homes once they embody the stories of the people who have made these spaces into places of significance, meaning, and memory. Home is fundamentally a place of connection and of relationships that are life-giving and foundational. Graham invites you to make everyone feel truly at home by finally inviting those living on the fringes of society into your heart. This is why Welcome Homeless is about doing, not saying. It is about taking the ultimate and forward-thinking vision of a new heaven and new earth and literally breaking the soil so that new earth can exist here today. It is about realizing that homelessness is not fundamentally a consequence of moral and spiritual inadequacies; but rather it is often the logical and economical outcome for a large part of our population. So, what does your vision of humanity and love look like? Whatever the vision, it should look like community. People should feel more alive after they meet you. When your consciousness changes from one of self-absorption to a consciousness aware of its human desire for connection, compassion, kindness, and beauty, you will start seeing things differently—and others will start seeing you made anew as well because the absolute greatest self-help occurs when you help others e.

Download or read book Workin Our Way Home written by Ron Hall and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heartwarming sequel to Same Kind of Different As Me! After Miss Debbie's death in 2000, her husband, Ron formed an even stronger bond with Denver, a homeless ex-con. Ron's touching memoir chronicles how their shared devotion to Debbie led them to work toward fulfilling her vision: to ease the pain associated with poverty, homelessness, and inequality. Workin’ Our Way Home describes the ten years Ron and Denver lived together after Miss Debbie’s death. Written in both Ron’s and Denver’s unique voices, their inspiring (and often hilarious) adventures include: Their sometimes-bizarre life together in the Murchison Mansion Denver accidentally almost burning the house down—twice The challenges involved with making a movie Two visits to the White House Traveling the country to raise awareness about homelessness And much more! With both wit and wisdom, these pages reveal God’s plan lived out through these men and those closest to them, including their passion to fulfill Debbie’s dream of mitigating the suffering and humiliation associated with homelessness and inequality. Denver said it best: “Whether we is rich or whether we is poor, or somethin' in between, this earth ain’t no final restin' place. So in a way, we is all homeless—ever last one of us—just workin our way home.”

Download or read book In the Not Quite Dark written by Dana Johnson and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following her prize–winning collection Break Any Woman Down, Dana Johnson returns with a collection of bold stories set mostly in downtown Los Angeles that examine large issues –love, class, race – and how they influence and define our most intimate moments. In "The Liberace Museum," a mixed–race couple leave the South toward the destination of Vegas, crossing miles of road and history to the promised land of consumption; in "Rogues," a young man on break from college lands in his brother's Inland Empire neighborhood during a rash of unexplained robberies; in "She Deserves Everything She Gets," a woman listens to the strict advice given to her spoiled niece about going away to college, reflecting on her own experience and the night she lost her best friend; and in the collection's title story, a man setting down roots in downtown L.A. is haunted by the specter of both gentrification and a young female tourist, whose body was found in the water tower of a neighboring building. With deep insight into character, intimate relationships, and the modern search for personal freedom, In the Not Quite Dark is powerful new work that feels both urgent and timeless.

Download or read book Breaking Night written by Liz Murray and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2010-09-07 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the vein of The Glass Castle, Breaking Night is the stunning memoir of a young woman who at age fifteen was living on the streets, and who eventually made it into Harvard. Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was put into a girls' home. At age fifteen, Liz found herself on the streets. She learned to scrape by, foraging for food and riding subways all night to have a warm place to sleep. When Liz's mother died of AIDS, she decided to take control of her own destiny and go back to high school, often completing her assignments in the hallways and subway stations where she slept. Liz squeezed four years of high school into two, while homeless; won a New York Times scholarship; and made it into the Ivy League. Breaking Night is an unforgettable and beautifully written story of one young woman's indomitable spirit to survive and prevail, against all odds.

Download or read book These Walls Were Never Really There written by BRYAN. BLEARS and published by 2qt Limited (Publishing). This book was released on 2022-04 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling debut novel, based on a true story... 'If you had told me then how it was going to end, three thousand miles and almost two years later, would I still have walked out of the door and set off on my journey?' Twenty-year-old Cameron has left everything behind. Sleeping rough on the streets, witness to the extreme conditions facing Manchester's homeless community, he is propelled on a physical and spiritual journey which will take him far away from the life he once knew... A surprising story about mental health, friendship and redemption, this compelling debut will take you on a journey across Europe and beyond, as Cameron and his travelling companion, Jacob, navigate packs of wolves, perilous border crossings and the harsh realities of life on the road.

Download or read book Invisible Child written by Andrea Elliott and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A “vivid and devastating” (The New York Times) portrait of an indomitable girl—from acclaimed journalist Andrea Elliott “From its first indelible pages to its rich and startling conclusion, Invisible Child had me, by turns, stricken, inspired, outraged, illuminated, in tears, and hungering for reimmersion in its Dickensian depths.”—Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Atlantic, The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Library Journal In Invisible Child, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter “to protect those who I love.” When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself? A work of luminous and riveting prose, Elliott’s Invisible Child reads like a page-turning novel. It is an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family and the cost of inequality—told through the crucible of one remarkable girl. Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize • Finalist for the Bernstein Award and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award

Download or read book A Practice Beyond Cultural Humility written by Claudia Grauf-Grounds and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Practice Beyond Cultural Humility offers specific guidance to support students and practitioners in providing on-going, culturally-attuned professional care. The book introduces a multicultural diversity-training model named the ORCA-Stance, an intentional practice which brings together four core components: Openness, Respect, Curiosity, and Accountability. Drawing from an array of influences, it showcases work with common clinical populations in a variety of contexts, from private practice to international organizations. Each clinical chapter offers a brief review of information relevant to the population discussed, followed by a case study using the ORCA-Stance, and a summary of recommended best practices. In each case, the practice of the ORCA-Stance is shown to allow relationships to become more culturally sensitive and, therefore, more effective. A Practice Beyond Cultural Humility provides practical examples, research, and wisdom that can be applied in day-to-day clinical work and will be valuable reading for a wide-range of mental health students and clinicians who seek to continue their professional development.

Download or read book Same Kind of Different As Me written by Ron Hall and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2008-03-09 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critically acclaimed #1 New York Times best-seller with more than one million copies in print! Now a major motion picture. Gritty with pain, betrayal, and brutality, this incredible true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love. Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped the “Man” in the 1960’s by hopping a train. Untrusting, uneducated, and violent, he spends 18 years on the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth. Meet Ron Hall, a self-made millionaire in the world of high-priced deals—an international arts dealer who moves between upscale New York galleries and celebrities. It seems unlikely that these two men would meet under normal circumstances, but when Deborah Hall, Ron's wife, meets Denver, she sees him through God's eyes of compassion. When Deborah is diagnosed with cancer, she charges Ron with the mission of helping Denver. From this request, an extraordinary friendship forms between Denver and Ron, changing them both forever. A tale told in two unique voices, Same Kind of Different as Me weaves two completely different life experiences into one common journey. There is pain and laughter, doubt and tears, and in the end a triumphal story that readers will never forget. Continue this story of friendship in What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing, available now. Same Kind of Different as Me also is available in Spanish.

Download or read book Catching Homelessness written by Josephine Ensign and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catching Homelessness is the compelling true story of a nurse's work with--and young adult passage through--homelessness.