A young mother who learned about us from one of our previous high school volunteers, is married at age 19 and has a 6-week-old baby girl. She is no longer working but her husband works part time and is in college. They are planning to make all fresh baby food, she is a nursing mother and they are trying to …
“…They had recently arrived from New York via a Greyhound bus and didn’t have anything to eat or any place to go…”
Late after a Friday staff meeting – after all the neighbors at the Neighborhood Center had left – a family of six knocked on the locked front door. They had recently arrived from New York via a Greyhound bus and didn’t have anything to eat or any place to go. We were able to work with our community partners to …
“Drugs and alcohol became a solution to my fear.”
Fear has been a dominating factor throughout my life. My first fear was the fear of abandonment. My father was addicted to alcohol and left when I was four years old. My coping mechanism was sucking my thumb. There is nothing wrong with thumb-sucking as a toddler, but at eight years old, I still did it every day. My kindergarten …
Mentoring A Child
C.D. was referred to the Youth Mentoring Network by her grandmother. She was a fifth grader and attended a local elementary school. Her grandmother has custody of C.D. as a result of abuse/neglect. She, her sister and three brothers, all reside with their grandmother in subsidized housing. Neither parent is involved in C.D.’s life. C.D.s grandmother reported that a lot of …
Impacting A Teen
Please allow me to take this opportunity to share one of my most memorable stories that I experienced in the 2018 “Y” 4 L.I.F.E program. A parent came to me before the program and stated she didn’t have enough money to allow her child to participate in my program but informed me her son could really use a program like …
YMCA Wheeling Has Impact On Children’s Lives
I was approached in February, 2018 by a grandfather of three children, he informed me his son and daughter-in-law lost the custodial rights of the three children due to heroin and he has been granted custody. He expressed to me he was on a limited income due to an injury that prevents him from working and had to work light duty every …
A New Smile
Holly is the mother of two who recently completed a recovery program and subsequent sober living program. She has regained custody of her children, secured permanent housing and got a job with the local division of a national distribution company. She is leading a healthy and productive life, but her methamphetamine abuse took a toll on her teeth and overall …
“Terrified that something was going to happen to her mother, the child never told a soul…”
MS was referred to SAHC by a Child Advocacy Center. She is the mother of a child victim of sexual abuse and the CAC encouraged MS to seek services for herself while moving through the process of healing with her daughter. Her daughter is a victim of sexual abuse by her step-father. The child was sexually abused for years by …
Upper Ohio Valley SAHC
AR is a victim of sexual assault by a coworker. Within 72 hours she obtained a Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) by a local hospital where SAHC’s hotline was called. Once the SAHC advocate arrived at the hospital AR was able to tell her story. AR was drugged, raped, and a victim of pornography. The offender beat her severely, photographed …
The Seeing Hand Association Help Visually Impaired
Imagine being born blind and never getting to see a sunset, comprehend the color red or see the face of your wife. These are the real circumstances for one of our part-time shop techs. In addition to the loss of vision, now imagine facing an unemployment rate of 70% and a lack of transportation to get to the workplace. The …