When Brandi first came to the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission, she was looking for a safe place for herself and her child after years of homelessness and struggling addiction. “My biggest challenge before coming to the mission was stability,” she says.
Brandi grew up in Redlands and experienced significant trauma during her childhood. She began using substances as a teenager, eventually becoming addicted to methamphetamine at 18. She also experienced homelessness throughout her young adulthood, spending years couch hopping and never having “a stable place of my own.” After becoming pregnant with her first child, she got clean and sober for a time but later returned to drugs while struggling with severe postpartum depression. “Losing my son was my rock bottom,” she explains. After getting sober again and completing her CPS case, Brandi found herself unable to afford her sober living situation. She knew she didn’t want to return to the streets, especially with her child fresh out of the system, which is how she found herself at the Mission.
From the beginning, Brandi says she felt safe and welcomed. Meeting Ms. Chris was particularly meaningful. “The second I met her, I started crying,” Brandi recalls, “because I knew that I was where I belonged.”
That feeling continued throughout her time at the Mission. Having experienced another homeless shelter in the past, Brandi noticed something different about the environment and the people around her. “This isn’t like your average homeless shelter or whatever you want to call it. You know, it’s different here.” At the Mission, she says, “Here you feel like family.”
Now part of the Women and Children’s Program, Brandi is working toward a future that includes returning to school to become a phlebotomist, finding stable housing, getting her driver’s license, and eventually moving closer to her family. The Mission has helped her take those steps by providing resources and transportation to appointments, interviews, and the Workforce Development Center.
Along the way, Brandi says the Mission has helped her confront one of her biggest personal struggles: “My self-doubt. [The Mission] has helped me to get over a lot of my fears and my worries and my self-doubts.”
Her faith has also grown during her time in the program. When she first arrived, she explains that spiritually, she was “…not with Jesus. I was, I had faith, don’t get me wrong, I had a mustard seed of faith, you know, but it was very small. I wasn’t really sure if this is real, you know? And then [here], my faith has slowly grown.”
When asked to describe how her life has changed since coming to the Mission, Brandi doesn’t hesitate: “Before coming to the mission, I was stressed. After coming to the mission, I am free.”
For Brandi, that freedom is tied to having somewhere safe to stay, people who care about her, and the opportunity to build something more stable for herself and her child. “I’m thankful to the mission because they gave me a place to stay.”
And when she talks about why others should support the Mission, her answer reflects what she has experienced firsthand: “It’s a good place to be. It’s a safe environment and it’s family friendly.”