Born into a family where drug abuse is the norm, Christina spent her teens skipping school and hanging out with the “wrong kids.” By her senior year, she was a full-blown addict and pregnant. Being pregnant with Alice gave Christina the drive to change her life. She started a 12-step program and looked for a safe, positive environment. Her baby girl, Alice, arrived healthy and drug-free. Christina vowed to raise her daughter with the values her childhood lacked. Unfortunately, making it on her own proved harder than she imagined; she worked long hours, but it simply was not enough, and soon they were on the street.

This is one of the thousand stories that staff of VOA-NCNN hears on a regular basis. Created with a purpose of helping those in need to rebuild their lives and reach their full potential over a century ago, this national nonprofit, faith-based organization provides services for more than 1800 men, women and children every day. Many would turn away from seeing a disparity, thinking that people who ended up on the streets are just simply lazy and consider any help to be enabling. This thinking comes from ignorance and lack of interest in getting emotionally involved. VOA-NCNN is trying to change that by allowing people who are fortunate enough to have stability to practice Biblical principles by helping those in need.

We would like to highlight a couple of programs that this great organization provides.

One of the programs is helping families who for one reason or another ended up in Sacramento Family Shelter to transition to a permanent housing. Not only they provide all the support to prepare for independent living, such as job readiness training and life skills education, they also provide basic necessities to help families to get a feeling of a home. While second hand items can be found to help these families, we feel that new items will serve as a generous gift and provide a renewed hope. That’s why we ask you to help and donate gifts, which you can do on Gooddler website here.

Another program that we would like to highlight is their services to help with job placement. Many of the people who are recovering alcoholics and drug addicts lost everything during their years of abuse. Now, they are trying to put their lives together and VOA-NCNN not only provides treatment and recovery support, but also helps with providing basic necessities such as clothing. Rebuilding live means finding a good stable job. Lack of appropriate clothing makes it difficult for these people to present themselves in the best possible way.

While they are fortunate to have gently used interview appropriate clothing donated, we ask you to help VOA-NCNN to provide the basics so job seeking residents look and feel their best! Make a gift donation on Gooddler website here.