April 2016 Newsletter

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An Environment of Hope

Amy was born in Roseburg. She is a part of the statistics of those not graduating from the local high school. Her self-evaluation is one of having a hard time concentrating, not getting into special education classes, not learning much in night school, doing poorly on GED tests. When she was 16-years-old, she went to work full-time at a fast food restaurant, holding that job for four years. But then, she fell prey to substance addiction. Amy said, “Its just so readily available. I skipped work because I was hungover; I didn’t care. I no-call, no-showed three or four times, then they finally fired me.” Daily parties and an abusive relationship followed. In the midst of the chaos, a daughter was born. She stayed away from addiction during her pregnancy, but the unhealthy, codependent relationship remained. She said, “I left when my daughter was nine-months old. I gave him custody, because I was majorly afraid of him; he was controlling and powerful. He was verbally abusive and threw things at me. I tried visiting rights, but he controlled that too. My life ran amuck.”

In October 2014, Amy arrived at Samaritan Inn the first time. She said, “I didn’t want to use (drugs) here, because there was support. My life didn’t have to be the way it was. Every day I was here, my life got better and better. I moved out three months later with my mom. After leaving here, I went back to the same people; its what I knew. When I left, there was no guidance, no structure.”

Then a window of hope opened for Amy. She said, “Child Welfare Program tracked me down in September, 2015. They told me that my daughter was in foster care. I made a decision to work on getting my daughter. I knew that the one place I could be clean (from addiction) was at Samaritan Inn.” Her second stay here is at the new, larger women and children’s shelter. But she said, “Samaritan Inn could have been a cabin, I just like the atmosphere here. I felt right where I should be.” She went to thirty places looking for work. Without any practice and only keyboarding in early high school, she passed the words per minute test at a call center. She has been employed since September and now works full-time.

In early October, Amy began one hour supervised visits with Kambrea, her four-year-old daughter. Moving slowly and through counseling, she now has three hour unsupervised visits once a week. DHS has advised her to stay at Samaritan Inn for her daughter’s return home plan.

Part of the atmosphere that Amy refers to is our Christian foundation. She said, “I started going to church the first time (as an adult) at Samaritan Inn. And I like the chapel messages here; its like they know what you need to hear. I started understanding what its all about. I am not a mistake; God put me here for a reason. Jesus loves everybody and loves you through everything. I am really grateful for this place and what it has done for my life.”