Heather

When Heather came to Housing Hope looking for housing, she felt overwhelmed. Her health was in a severe decline. Her son, who is on the Autism Spectrum, needed structure and stability. Her husband had left them. And her sister, who counted on her for support, needed a place to live too. After several months of couch surfing at friends’ homes, and a period of homelessness, Heather was exhausted.

Her hope was restored when she was approved to move into Lincoln Hill Village in Stanwood with the minimal belongings they had saved in storage. They found the structure and stability they needed to go forward. Family Support Coach, Joan Daves, began to meet with them regularly to help them stabilize with support services. Heather was still recovering from an infection that lingered from having 4 surgeries over a 6-month period and had a lot of healing to do. She was elated to have a secure home for her son, but he needed more support. With the help of Joan, Heather was able to get her son into a community program called WISe (Wraparound with Intensive Services). It is an effective approach to developing and coordinating care plans that build on the strengths of children, youth, and families. With 30 hours a week of crisis counseling for several weeks, the caregivers were able to work with Heather’s son to curb the anxiety and self-harm tendencies he was experiencing.

Heather knows this period of help was life changing for both of them.” Housing Hope created a safe environment for us to work through the trauma we had experienced to become healthy. As a result, we have changed the way we eat, we have more structure in our schedules and how we stay organized. My son is now seeing his own self-worth as he does well in school and learns new skill sets. I already had an associate’s degree in business, but I didn't have any belief or trust in myself to use it. By improving my health and mobility, I have learned to love and trust myself. I want people to know that homelessness was generational in my family, and I am working to end that cycle by focusing on each area of my life day by day, to improve. Everybody comes to Housing Hope from some sort of trauma, and we can connect with each other to learn and recover. I helped create a blog and podcast to help others through life's adventures and am stepping into my superpower of helping businesses get seen on social media while empowering others to spend more time in their zone of genius. I know my son will always be living with me and I am focused on making a better future for both of us. I am thankful to Housing Hope and Joan Daves for their ongoing support and blessings.”