I found “Ready for Life” about two and a half years ago and they have helped me so many times...
I found “Ready for Life” about two and a half years ago and they have helped me so many times to make me feel important and loved. I was a foster kid from the age of 6 to 18 years old and was always overloaded with psychiatric and therapy appointments.
Ready for Life helped me the first time 2 years ago when I was homeless from domestic violence. I walked into the doors and was welcomed with open arms. Never having a family, they then became the place to go when I needed advice, needed a kind word, or needed the motivation to not let the strife of suffering in a homeless shelter that made me feel weak and invalid.
I can’t thank the staff and donors that keep Ready for Life afloat because, I know I have a place to shower, a place to do laundry in emergencies, and a place to get necessities. Growing with Ready for Life the past two years has allowed me to make better budgeting choices, better boundaries in my personal relationships through the therapy they provide, and even to feel more understood because of the phenomenal training the staff maintain.
Many foster kids like me realize we spent our childhoods and even years after the age of 18 running away from the shame and embarrassment of having childhood trauma and bad coping mechanisms because we never had a safe place or people to replace the family we never had.
Ready for Life, is the family and staff that keep pushing me to the next level of success. I have participated in cooking classes, motivational job coaching classes that motivated me on a journey of self-love and manifestation. They even help us when we need help in a financial situation or with healthy advice.
I want others to realize that Ready for Life is the hidden gem for foster kids who feel alone and troubled need to put us back on the right path of success. I realize time only develops my humility that the staff care that we grow into successful versions of ourselves more and more each day. I love the facilities, resources, and kind words and real love the staff of Ready for Life always provides me. I can’t thank the staff enough when I realize if I didn’t have their facility and resources, I might be a little more depressed and lonelier because, I don’t have any real biological family. When emergencies happen Ready for Life is the guiding light and resource to keep me working on healthy coping strategies for my PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
Thank you RFL for being there to show me it’s okay after being an aged out foster kid to need someone and to allow myself to learn to ask for help. I tend to be a stubborn person and spent years isolating and just letting my anxiety keep me from being happy.
I constantly tell people the amazing miracles and my own story of overcoming the struggle to make ends meet and to not let my mental health control my life anymore. Ready for Life is such a blessing for us foster kids in various walks of life and various ages. They keep me from being an antisocial butthead sometimes because trauma does create hyper independence & inner trauma wounds.
I can proudly say I motivate myself each day to be a true success story Ready for Life. I use my words to motivate and encourage others who might be a bit sad of their current situation whether it's homelessness or the fear of the future. The staff at ready for life are family to me. It’s a big family of understanding and encouragement that we can have mental illness and trauma, but we are still a loving accepting family ready to encourage and motivate the next generation of foster care youth.
Having overcome two years of being homeless, surviving Safe Harbor, Tent City, and even sleeping outside with a previous abusive spouse. I continue to learn to manifest my new successful and loving future. Foster Youth are blessed because, this Organization exists for the holidays when we don’t have biological family, we instead come to Ready for Life to celebrate with our own family that includes both staff and fellow foster youth with various ages. I have a family now and that is Ready for Life. Every time I step foot in the building I feel safe, accepted, loved, and motivated for the next chapter of success in my life.
Sincerely,
Lizz Blair
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