When I first arrived to Casa Teresa back in December of 2015 my life was in complete shambles. I had struggled with addiction since I was 15 years old. I was newly sober, I lacked family support due to my drug abuse. I had nothing and my parents had recently taken over guardianship of my 1st born son. To tie it all together, I was pregnant. I had nowhere to run. But all of that was about to change.
I was scared and worried about what I was going to do and how I would ever be able to raise another baby when I couldn’t even take care of the little boy I already had. A friend of mine from church told me about Casa Teresa. When I first heard about it I thought to myself, and told my boyfriend, I am not going to live at a shelter for pregnant women. Well, after thinking and reading about their program, I decided to call. A week later, I was moved in. It was very scary and lonely the first few days until I met all of the amazing staff and amazing women that were here. Everyone here at Casa Teresa is very loving and are all here to help. I am so thankful to be here today and I appreciate everything they do for us. If it weren’t for Casa Teresa I don’t know where I would be today. My Case Manager, Susan, is such an amazing person and really helps me with anything that I need. Casa Teresa has helped me grow as a woman and is still helping me day by day. In my time here at Casa Teresa I have secured trust again with my family. I have been clean and sober since January 2015 from drugs and alcohol. I am in the process of doing a reunification with my almost five year old son. I have started to pursue my dreams at becoming a nurse so I am now what you call a full-time student. My baby Julian is one-year-old and happy as can be. His father and I have a pretty awesome, healthy relationship. We will have our wedding in November 2017. My life today is amazing. Casa Teresa has helped me be a success story. If I can do it, anybody can. I have God in my life today who has completely taken control because I asked him for help. For the first time in my life I can honestly say I love myself. I love the mom, sister, daughter and fiancé that I am. I am a miracle.
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As we mentioned in an earlier post, we are selling the property of our Emergency Maternity Shelter and bringing the program to our main campus. For more information, please read the update on our website.
In the past couple of weeks there have been a lot of activity at Casa Teresa. We celebrated with four of our women (Cathryn, Jazmyne, Taylor and Avi) as they moved from Transformation 2 into stable housing and with well-paying jobs. And all of our Transformation 1 residents (Nicole, Shaina, Delysa and Kelsey) moved into Transformation 2 apartments. All of our Parenting rooms will now sleep two women and their babies (once born) - except we will keep one as a single for our resident who is due with twins in this week. All of these changes needed to occur so we could prepare the house that will be the new home for our emergency maternity program. This week we will begin painting, followed by having the carpets completely cleaned. We will share photos of the progress in the coming weeks as we continue to prepare. Thank you for your generosity and support during this exciting time at Casa Teresa. Ways you can help! Guardian Angel Society: When you become a Guardian Angel (our monthly giving program), you help support the basic monthly needs of the women we serve. Your monthly gift will add up during the course of a year and make a difference! Visit the website and scroll to the bottom of the page to select the "Guardian Angel" box. One-time gift: It takes financial resources to move one house to another and our house has 11 women and babies (plus all the amazing staff who serve them daily). From the cost of movers and supplies, to painting and special storage beds to maximize space...your gift of any size will be a blessing! Visit the website and select the "donate now" button at the top right. Household supplies: With the move we will be in need of a few additional household items. Below is a link to a registration where you can purchase some of these needed items. If you select Casa Teresa as your charity on amazon and then shop on Amazon.smile.com, we get a percentage back! Amazon Registry Thank you to all of you who have supported this effort so far. We appreciate your partnership and investment in our program. Lisa Wood, CEO [email protected] (714) 538-4860 x16 iA blog post from Clare, one of our Notre Dame Interns this summer:
One of the first things a person sees when walking up to the front doors of Casa Teresa are the numbers “1 2 3” painted in black on the top of the door-frame. When I first saw these three numbers, I did what most people probably do at seeing the same sight—I smiled to myself. 1 2 3 seems like the perfect street number just like a phone number that has consecutive numbers seems like the perfect phone number or a license plate that has letters that spell out a word seems like the perfect license plate. At the end of the day, a street number like 1 2 3 is humorous enough to bring a small smile to someone’s day. At the end of my eight week internship at Casa Teresa, 1 2 3 is more than a funny coincidence—it is a symbol for something larger than itself, something that is special. When people think of the numbers 1 2 3, they think of teaching a young child how to count or, in my case, they also think of Michael Jackson crooning “A B C, easy as 1 2 3”. In the case of teaching the young child, 1 2 3 is the beginning of something—it’s the gateway to an infinite amount of numbers that can be used in an infinite amount of ways. Likewise, Casa Teresa is the beginning of something new for the mothers and babies that walk through the doorway. Through Casa Teresa’s classes, house moms, and case managers, moms receive the resources and skills that enable them to pursue an infinite amount of possibilities and futures. During my time here at Casa Teresa, I have been able to see firsthand the transformation the moms go through. From sitting broken at rock bottom, they blossom into wholesome, confident, and beautiful women determined to follow their dreams and to be the women and mothers they always dreamed of but never thought possible. I saw this the most at the Friday movie nights the mothers hosted. With the weekend ahead of them, the moms gathered in the community room to relax and enjoy the assortment of food they each brought from whatever they had in their rooms. I enjoyed sitting alongside them away from the classes and chores to listen to them talk to each other about their concerns at work, their pregnancy pains and aches, and their goals for beyond Casa Teresa. They poured out their hearts with sincerity and soul. The moms admitted to each other the burdens of their pasts. But instead of using these burdens as umbrellas to keep off the blessings of their current situations, they use their burdens as shields to fight forward into life. Their fuel and motivation are none other than the unborn children within them. At going away parties for moms who have graduated from all of the Casa Teresa programs, I got to see their hopes and dreams achieved. Moms graduating from Casa Teresa have variety of jobs, many choosing to dedicate their time to women in similar situations to themselves. Their children brim with smiles and laughter. The moms’ eyes fill with bittersweet tears—bitter because they are leaving the home that Casa Teresa has become; sweet because they are embracing a future of hope. The moms’ words at the goodbye party resonate with a common theme: my child and I are living a life where I can do and be anything, and it is because of Casa Teresa that we have this. With hugs and kisses, the promise to return and the promise of the Casa family always being available, the moms embark on a new chapter in their life, a new chapter filled with blank pages waiting to be written on in countless combinations of words. The numbers 1 2 3 work as building blocks, stepping stones to learning, understanding, and growth. Casa Teresa has four main building blocks—the Emergency Maternity Shelter, Parenting, Transition 1, and Transition 2—that help the moms grow into healthy women and prepared mothers. Through these programs, the moms begin the long process of reconstructing who they are with the help of the Casa Teresa staff’s unending love, mercy, and compassion. “I had to surrender.” One of the moms told me. “I had to surrender myself. The hardest thing I ever had to do was look in the mirror at myself.” Moms are then able to receive the guidance of house moms and case managers. At a goodbye party, a mother said, “I learned that I deserve to be treated right—I deserve to be loved. I deserve to be confident in myself.” The moms forge their pasts into new identities of women who understand their worth, their gifts, and their beauty. I watched as one of the moms fought for her newborn. She ran around day in and day out completing paperwork, going to the doctor, cleaning her room, and meeting with her social worker in attempt to do everything she possibly could to gain custody of her child. When her case closed and her face lit with joy, she told me she did not know how she did it. Her strength, she said, had not come from her. In the nightmare of a situation, her love for her son and her belief that she had become the mother he needed empowered her to survive on little rest and peace for weeks on end. She rose to the mom her son needed her to be—she rose to a woman who faced adversity with a smile, a laugh, a positive attitude, and a purpose. Above all else, 1 2 3 are three numbers that are simple. Casa Teresa strips down life until only the most important things remain: love, life, and happiness. When I look back at my eight weeks at Casa Teresa, one image stands out the most. It is an image that will stay with me for years to come when I think back to my experience this summer. The image is nothing more than this: a mother coming back from a class to pick up her child from volunteer babysitters. As soon as she walks through the door and her eyes find her daughter, the mother’s face fills with joy. When the mother calls her daughter’s name, the child’s face lights up and the only thing she sees or cares about is her mother, who sweeps her up into her arms and covers her face with kisses. They have only been separated for an hour, and yet they reunite as if they have been separated for ages. They are each other’s worlds, and in that moment, nothing else matters to them but each other. The only word I have to describe the scene is precious. If I have learned anything during my time at Casa Teresa, it is to value and emphasize the things that truly matter. The mom reuniting with her daughter—that should be valued. The help that people in our communities need—that should be emphasized. A rising sophomore in college, I get lost in things that do not matter. I dream of a high-paying job and being influential to many. What I have forgotten and what Casa Teresa has reminded me is that people are important, not money. Making a difference does not have to be world-wide, it can be small and start with the people we encounter in our every day. I’m leaving Casa Teresa with my priorities rearranged. I want to value and help people more; I want to do what I love and what gives me a sense of purpose, not what gives me the largest pay check or the most prestigious job. I have been inspired by the moms and staff of Casa Teresa to go out and be more than who I already am. From nothing—from three numbers above a door—comes so much meaning and hope. From nothing—from women who are broken with no place to go—comes everything. The Board and Casa Teresa leadership worked together to create a plan to return our organization to fiscal stability. We are selling the property of our Emergency Maternity Shelter and bringing the program to the main campus. We are committed to the Emergency Maternity Program because we serve more pregnant women, children and babies annually through this program than our residential and transitional programs combined.
This move will create an annual budget savings of $300,000 and generate capital reserves. We also believe this will create greater efficiencies in our program and we will have 24/7 staffing on the main campus for increased security for our women and babies. Additionally, we are surveying our alumnae to understand our impact, how we might enrich our current programming and how we might build collaborations to enhance the success of our women and their babies as they leave our program. All of this will be taking place over the next two months. We will continue to send updates and offer tours once we are settled in! Ways you can help! Guardian Angel Society: When you become a Guardian Angel (our monthly giving program), you help support the basic monthly needs of the women we serve. Learn more about this program and ways you can help. Visit the website and scroll to the bottom of the page to select the "Guardian Angel" box. Your monthly gift will add up during the course of a year and make a difference! One-time gift: You know it takes financial resources to move one house to another and our house has 11 women and babies (plus all the amazing staff who serve them daily). From the cost of movers and supplies, to painting and special storage beds to maximize space...your gift of any size will be a blessing! Visit the website and select the "donate now" button at the top right. Household supplies: With the move we will be in need of a few additional household items. Below is a link to a registration where you can purchase some of these needed items. Amazon Registry If you select Casa Teresa as your charity on amazon and then shop on Amazon.smile.com, we get a percentage back! |
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