A Place To Call Home
The seeds of change are found in everyday experience. The stories of people who live in supportive housing can shed light on important issues, such as what it is like to experience homelessness or live with mental illness or a disability. Because of this, during 2019, the Supportive Housing Providers Association (SHPA) and Housing Action Illinois partnered to bring a series of five workshops to help residents of permanent supportive housing explore telling stories to make a difference. The stories in this publication grew out of the workshops, and we are grateful to everyone whose experiences are shared in these pages. Together, we can build a more understanding, compassionate world. Our thanks to the Illinois Charitable Trust Stabilization Fund for making this collaboration possible.
The seeds of change are found in everyday experience. The stories of people who live in supportive housing can shed light on important issues, such as what it is like to experience homelessness or live with mental illness or a disability. Because of this, during 2019, the Supportive Housing Providers Association (SHPA) and Housing Action Illinois partnered to bring a series of five workshops to help residents of permanent supportive housing explore telling stories to make a difference. The stories in this publication grew out of the workshops, and we are grateful to everyone whose experiences are shared in these pages. Together, we can build a more understanding, compassionate world.
Our thanks to the Illinois Charitable Trust Stabilization Fund for making this collaboration possible.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
STANLEY
Hillside workshop
“I’m dreaming
again. That feels
so good, to be
able to dream.”
I’ve always said to myself, Lord, why am I going through all the crap that
I’m going through? And it came back to me: “I want you to be able to
identify with everyone. I want you to be able to say been there, done that.
And since I been there, done that, I can help show you the way out.”
I actually tried to commit suicide. My life was so low and so bad, I
couldn’t even get suicide right. And I’m so grateful now, because it
passed. I didn’t think that I had that capability of doing something like
that. So that was a rude awakening for me.
The reason is I had to deal with the death of my son. He was shot and
killed on the west side of Chicago. He called me two weeks before he got
killed. He said, “Dad? I’m about to be
a dad too, just like you! But I need help
because I don’t know how to be a dad.”
“Don’t worry, baby, I got you,” I said.
“You need to come out here with me,
first. Get off that west side of Chicago,
and we’ll buy a home. And I’ll pass it
“He called me two
weeks before he got
killed. He said, ‘Dad?
I’m about to be a dad,
too, just like you!’”
39
Change language