Formerly homeless young adults describe surviving childhood abuse and living in cars and shelters, then finding stability through OnRamp's basic support and The Relatives' self-care workshops and Mural Ninjas art project. Staff and participants share how compassion and purpose rebuilt their lives.
I didn't understand why she did it. My mom, she left me at the daycare. I get it, life is hard, but as a mother, to not explain why you did that, it just bothers me because you just I could see him coming.
He'd open that door and the light from the hallway would be the only thing that I, I would see. My father molested me. Even after the abuse stopped, he just found another way to abuse me. They treated me like I did not exist. I was in a horrible place. I'm sorry.
How is it living in my car? I like living in the car. When you go into a shelter or a place like that, they like to be like, why are you here? Why are you so young and why are you here? And then they like, okay, um, they start being like, what did you do wrong? And then they'll be like, oh, that's what you did wrong. And then they'll give you an opinion and then they'll give you more opinions that you don't need in your head. Like, In the car? In the car, like, no one is telling me that I'm not doing anything wrong.
I got into this, you know, to help the kids that were less fortunate. These kids are physically and emotionally abused, and I wanted to be some kind of buffer. You're giving young adults a sense of purpose. You're letting them take ownership over their lives. Finally, they have control to do what they want to do in a positive way. So when I see these kids that I affect, it's priceless.
What OnRamp does is a program that can get youth more stable. Coming here and seeing how well organized it is, I feel like I'm given more attention because they are like, they really do care about whether you succeed or not. You know.
Oh man, I don't know a lot. This place saved my life, and people—I'm sorry—the people were amazing. They didn't treat us like. Like we were crazy or bad. The 2 times that I lived here, like, I remember being relieved. It feels like it did 40 years ago. I am I thank God that they're still here. It's, it's an amazing organization.
Today is going to be our intro to self-care, and I always like to start the workshop with a quick question: What is self-care to you? I know personally, having been in a homeless situation, that until you've really Until you experience it, you don't realize how much you really go without. And the Relatives helps to address the immediate need that prepares you for any next step. It makes sure that you're equipped with the life skills needed, with the resources needed to live day to day.
If I didn't come to this place, I would still be homeless. I would still be trying to find somewhere to go. I would still be like just struggling with like different things like And they just don't know how much they really, really, really impacted me. They've helped me find myself again and just, you know, reassuring me that there is people out here who genuinely care about you. With everything in me, I mean that.
I'm an artist. Took me a while to get to that point or that frame of mind. If it weren't for art, I would— again, art and the relatives, like, I don't know where I'd be. We started Mural Ninjas. And got a call from Wendy Hickley from ArtPop, and she was like, I got 2 murals at this building. They're putting it together now, and they'd like you guys to do them. And she said the name of the building, and I said, The Relatives?
The relatives.
It was just like full circle. It was an amazing feeling to do that for this place. It was important to me that it was a beautiful piece. It's like more important than just about anything else I've done. This place is It was surprising.
So yeah, I would say beacon of light. Thank you, OnRamp, for letting me take a shower, giving me food, giving me time to think about my next steps. So I'm definitely gonna make it.
I didn't believe that there was nobody out here who I could call on, nobody out here who would listen, nobody out here who would understand. But when I came to this place, it literally changed my life forever.
