Stories

At Volunteers of America, it is not uncommon for service-seekers to become dedicated service providers where they advocate for resources and shape programs with their own voices. The same can be said for JaShunna Boykins at VOA EpiCenter in North Louisiana who had VOA counselors help her transform how she copes with mental health struggles. She is now following in their footsteps giving back as a peer support specialist and using her lived experiences to support people experiencing mental health issues. “It’s really just me being able to empathize with them, and let them know that, hey, I’ve been where…

Leah’s mom was determined when she told her daughter that they would have a better life someday.

Life had always been hard for a good man named Walter. He lived in the basement of a church, but he was about to be evicted. This was not the first time he had been homeless and he figured he could live in his old station wagon for a while. At the age of 75 making such transitions weren’t as easy as they had been when he was a younger man, but Walter had no other choice. He had to move on.

I was homeless at birth and found myself homeless many decades later, sleeping in a small bunch of palm trees near a parking lot. But my life wasn’t always that way.

Former foster youth, Josey, was blindsided by suddenly becoming homeless during her first year of college. Most kids her age would have given up under the pressure. But not Josey: she got a job, and then another, and another. She tirelessly worked three jobs to be able to afford a place to live—and the scholarship Volunteers of America of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho gave her meant she could use her relentless tenacity to continue taking classes and become one of only 2% of foster youth to graduate from college. Here’s her story.

Jane, a current resident of Volunteers of America Colorado Branch’s Clermont Commons, a Transitional Housing Program for homeless women veterans, is not only a single mother but a full time student. Jane, who is from the Fiji Islands, came to the United States in 2005. After struggling to find employment, she decided to join the United States Army. She deployed to Iraq in 2007, shortly after giving birth to her son. 

In 2005, upon graduating from a halfway house, John Saunders, a veteran, was having a difficult time finding housing. One of the counselors at the halfway house, also a veteran, lived at East 119th Street Veterans Residence in East Harlem and he advised him to obtain a copy of his army discharge papers and apply for veterans housing there. At the time of his acceptance, East 119th Street Veterans Residence was operated by an organization other than Volunteers of America Greater New York and was in need of repair.

Deltric Davis served two years in the Army on the front lines in Iraq. After having an epileptic seizure, he received an early honorable discharge. After leaving the military, he lost his direction. He briefly attended Southern University and had a temporary job assisting with the BP Deepwater horizon cleanup efforts, but by November 2011 he was homeless, jobless and living on the streets. 

Thanks to Volunteers of America and The Home Depot, an Ohio family has gone from homelessness to a stable life filled with possibilities.