Laura escaped domestic violence in Texas, traveling north to live with a sibling in Madison. When that arrangement didn’t work out, she put her name in a lottery for a bed in a women’s shelter, but felt overwhelmed and didn’t stay. At one point, she was living in a storage shed with her friend and her service dog.
Laura says completing the application for Twin Oaks Shelter for the Homeless changed her life.
Twin Oaks is often at capacity, and it took three months for Laura to be called off the waiting list.
“I am so grateful and can’t express strong enough how much I appreciate Twin Oaks staff,” she says. “They are so willing to help, so quick to listen, so eager to give all the resources needed to turn my situation around.”
Laura says she had to do the legwork, but every time she accomplished her case management goals she felt stronger, more confident and more positive about life in general. She says her greatest newly-acquired emotion is worthiness.
“It’s been over 15 years of domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters, living on the streets, under bridges and in boxes. It’s been a long, hard 15 years, but today I am thankful to Twin Oaks for giving me my normality back, giving me my dignity back and giving me hope I had lost.”