Success Stories

Michelle struggled with drug and alcohol abuse off and on for over 17 years. Despite a six year period of success, she could not escape her past and relapsed into her old life. She lost her children to CPS. Michelle hit rock bottom in May of 2007. With St. John's help, Michelle found, and has maintained a great job, a home, and has long-since closed her CPS case. Still, Michelle believes that her greatest personal success at St. John's was learning to value herself and, in turn, sharing that self esteem with her children as a loving, supportive and trustworthy mom.

Tracy has tried to turn her life around many, many times before. She tried to kick her drug and alcohol addictions in order to keep her homes and to be a good mother to Ashley. She has been in and out of St. John's and other shelters multiple times, but has never managed to stay clean and sober for more than a week or two. On the day she took Ashley to register at Mustard Seed, she saw a St. John's case manager who looked her in the eye and told her to try one more time. Ashley begged to go back to St. John's, and Tracy agreed to give it another try. Tracy and Ashley now live at Serna Village They are enthusiastic participants in St. John's After-Care program. And Ashley, who gave her mother the strength and courage to change, was elected as the President of the Student Council last year.

Rebecca is a full-time honors college student. She lives in Serna Village with her son Christopher, who is enrolled in the Junior Leadership and GATE programs in his school. Rebecca went to prison after 29 years of drug and alcohol addiction. After serving her term, emerging clean and sober, and reunited with her 9 year old son Christopher, a "trusted" roommate took her money, and she found an eviction notice on her door. Terrified at the prospect of relapsing by being back on the street, Rebecca fled to St. John's. Sober and ready to put her life together, Rebecca learned what she calls an "attitude of gratitude". St. John's Program enabled her to deal with all of her tasks of life—from court dates, to classes and AA meetings, to helping her son with homework. In addition, she relies on St. John's After-Care Program for continued classes and support.