Teresa

Maybe it was the day Teresa (not her real name) went to pick up her daughter at school, and one the children said, "Who's that lady? Is that your foster mom?" Or perhaps it was the Minneapolis cop who arrested her again and again, telling her each time that if she didn't change her ways she'd end up dead. "I hated that cop with a passion, but if I could see him now I would tell him that I love him for being so hard on me." The last stint in jail was only 14 days, but during that period Teresa the futility of her life--a life of drugs, prostitution, and irresponsible behavior--hit her. She decided to change.

Teresa's life had never been easy. One of five children born to an alcoholic mother, Teresa was brought up in poverty in the Chicago projects. When she was in middle school in Chicago, "soft" drugs and alcohol were a way of life. By 14, Teresa was a regular marijuana user, and by 17 Teresa had quit school, graduated to cocaine, and become a prostitute. By 19 she was snorting heroin, and by 21 she was addicted to crack. During this period--until she was 28, in fact--she had no fixed address: she drifted from hotel to hotel, going wherever her pimp told her to go.

At 28 Teresa gave birth to a baby girl that tested positive for drugs. The baby's father, also a crack addict, was in jail, and when it was time for Teresa to take the baby home, there was no home to go to, so she went to a shelter. Eventually Teresa got an apartment in one of the worst projects in Chicago. "Not only were there rats everywhere, the place was drug-infested. You never even had to leave the building--people were selling drugs in the corridors, on the elevators--everywhere!" She did try a methadone program for a year, and then a treatment program, but couldn't leave the drugs behind.

A 7-month prison sentence, and another pregnancy convinced Teresa that she needed to change. So she moved to Minneapolis, fully intending to leave her old ways behind. Unfortunately, the neighborhood she moved into is notorious for drug dealing, and Teresa got caught up in a dangerous life style almost immediately. "I even did all the things I said I'd never do--like deal drugs out of my home." Her behavior put herself and her children at grave risk.

Now Teresa can speak calmly about those days: "When that cop sent me to jail again, something clicked. I decided I had to get clean." So after her sentence, Teresa and her children went to Eden House for four months. Then she put in an application at New Foundations supportive housing community on St. Paul's east side, Crestview.

"I was scared, but willing. I figured anything had to be better than the life we had been living. I was spiritually broken, and I couldn't nurture anyone, let alone my own kids. I didn't know how. New Foundations was like a mom-- it nurtured me, and taught me how to nurture."

During her stay at New Foundations, Teresa took courses at the Hubbs Center, got her GED, and got a steady job--her first ever. "I like having responsibility. I like getting up, going to work, taking care of my kids. I really like the stability." She also went to AA meetings, meditation, and did volunteer work at Crestview.

"The staff at New Foundations believed in me--nobody had ever done that before. I think that's all I ever needed--for people to be honest with me, to help me grow up and learn to be honest with myself so I could learn to believe in myself."

Teresa left Crestview after three years. "I was really frightened to leave the community and all the support, but suddenly one day I wasn't scared any more, and I knew I could do it." Teresa still comes back to Crestview for group meetings and meditation, and her children still have loads of friends at Crestview; but the family has moved to their own home in St. Paul.

Recently Teresa's life changed in another way: she is a Family Services Associate at Crestview! "I always knew I would keep coming back to Crestview, but I never dreamed I'd come back as a staff member!" Teresa loves the job, and is good at it. "I love the women--they are me. I can relate to them, and they can relate to me. It's what I want to do, and New Foundations really prepared me well."

New Foundations is very lucky to have Teresa on staff

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