A helping hand in dark times

Hi, my name is Laura Rowe, and I am simply writing this email to allow for whomever would be interested in the available knowledge of how the staff/programs at Community Partners For Success has helped make my incredibly difficult journey easier in a any way they could. If there was a way to assist me in my self development or to even lighten the burden for me they were always there with a helping hand and a welcoming smile without the pressure of judgement to aid in any given way they had the means for.

Firstly, here is a little bit about my story so that you can more fully comprehendingly understand at what level of importance I mean when disclosing how much they have assisted me thus far. My name is Laura Rowe and I am a 32 year old female who is from Saint John NB. I was incarcerated back in 2018 after failing a short lived battle with opioids. After completing my sentence at the institution in good time, I was released into custody of a halfway house in order to ease my way back into routine and chaotic ways of today society. I was very well aware of how frustrating and confusing that the system for self rehabilitation is like in Saint John, however was not prepared for to be a plague epidemic emergency crisis thrown in there with it. Due to COVID 19 epidemic as soon as I was released from the halfway house. I was supposed to be given assistance in finding immediate emergency housing due to being incarcerated for a lengthy period of time, however housing and their resources ended up shut down before given the chance to obtain their assistance. Long story short, I ended up residing on the streets because of COVID 19s tragic efforts on society and the resources given to aid us to create better lives for ourselves, preventing any relapse or reoccurring behaviours that may cause us to go down the familiar paths from our pasts that lead to our lawbroken downfalls resulting in being arrested. That was a chapter of my life that I wanted closed entirely, however it becomes rather difficult when your resources to make that happen end up being taken away from you and after a year of living in the institutionalized lifestyle you get thrown back onto the streets of your very own home town. In my opinion that almost seems like setting people up to fail or at least making it almost impossible to succeed in self improving oneself or making any positive lifestyle changes.

Long story short I ended up getting attacked numerous times on the streets, had my father pass away from a massive heart attack and wake up in a graveyard on the opposite side of town lacking any clothing or footwear from the waist down with multiple lacerations/bruising and proof of being attacked. After all of that I was informed that there still were no resources put into place yet to assist me getting off the streets. At that point I had enough and wanted out therefore walked to the highway with absolutely no money, identification, or form of communication to the outside world and hitchhiked to the other side of the country. I was truly a ghost, a real life Jane Doe.

After 6 longs days and nights I ended up in Trenton Ontario where I did not know a soul. I would probably never truly understand why I chose Trenton however I did. Turns out the resources in Trenton were basically also non existent due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Back on the streets I was in desperate hopes of finding a fresh start. This is when CPFS comes into play. It wasn’t until about being on the streets of Trenton for almost 3 months that I have discovered them and all that really matters is that I did. Right from the very start they took me right in and made me feel welcome and like finally something was going to be okay.

I couldn’t have asked for more helpful, kind or genuine staff at this location and was not afraid to ask them questions that I needed to know due to their calming and welcoming demeanor. The staff at CPFS went above and beyond to make sure that I had everything that I needed to face the difficult situation that I was in and to make sure that I was fully equipped with the resources needed in order to be best prepared to fight the battle of my life. In order to be able to connect with the people that could assist me in getting out of the cold or on a path that would truly lead to my success of getting off the streets and being safe with hopes for a better future where my accomplishments are not limited to my past mistakes. A fresh start and a new beginning.

They allowed me to come into CPFS everyday during opening hours to keep warm, take advantage of the clothing room, providing me with warm clothing and footwear etc, as well as even a place to rest my head for a couple hours if I was unable to locate a safe shelter the night before. They were always insistent of helping me in any way that they could and made me feel like a person without judgement instead of a homeless statistic like many other previous environments have.

Moving forward, when I found out that I was expecting they became an even bigger resource and aid for me. They helped me connect with the resources needed in order for me to receive the proper care for my baby and I. They connected me with a program called THRIVE where I got a Social Worker who went above and beyond making me obtain an OB and made it to all the appointments. I am actually sitting here is a hospital bed in Kingston awaiting emergency surgery ( due to complication in my pregnancy), awaiting my baby boy to come into this world but without proper medical care there is no way I would have known about these complications in time for it to have mattered. Therefore in a sense you can see if it weren’t for Christine and Danielle and the other staff at CPFS taking the time out of their days to assist me in finding the resources I needed ( which was not an easy process at all with COVID) and leading to my medical OB care which lead to this diagnosis early enough to control it, than I would not be here today. They helped save me from a time that would have been much harder than this one.