Voices of Hope – Braeden C.

“I was born and raised on the East Coast. I left home at 13 years old and faced homelessness on and off over the years. When I came to Jacksonville, I ended up getting lost in substance abuse and really struggled to get out of that cycle. I remember just crying out and asking God to save me from the life I was living. I got arrested that evening. When I was incarcerated, another individual had mentioned Operation New Hope. When I was released, I was made aware my case had to be closed before I could enroll. A few weeks passed and I ended up in a sober living house. One week after moving in, my charges were dropped and my case was closed. I still felt pretty lost and had no idea how I would get back on track, so I went back to ONH which was a short three minute walk from the house. I was fortunate to be able to start the following Monday. Operation New Hope set me up for success; they covered three months of my stay at that sober living home.

The Ready4Work program reshaped my mentality. At this point, I hadn’t worked a 9-5 in about 5 years and I was pretty lost and had no confidence in reentering the workforce. ONH had everything I would need to completely turn that around. 

The program gave me hope. I had an entire team of people standing right behind me with the intention to see me succeed. The staff at Operation New Hope were consistently encouraging myself and my peers to simply be the best versions of ourselves and provided us the tools to do just that. I am very grateful for my Case Manager Ciara’s encouragement. Whenever I had set a goal, she provided me resources and helped me make a game plan to achieve it.