Back on My Feet starts with a run, but builds to so much more. The community supports members as they enter into the core of our program, Next Steps, where they can achieve training, education, employment and housing.
Norma was born in Honduras and immigrated to Boston in 1970. She moved first to a predominantly black neighborhood and then to a primarily white one, feeling like an outsider in both, teased for her different hair and clothing. Norma refers to this time as when her “self-hatred” started.
In an effort to cope with being bullied and being an outsider, Norma turned to drugs starting at the tender age of 12. Crack, cocaine, pot, and alcohol were her escapes, and with them came lying, stealing, and eventually prostitution to maintain the lifestyle.
Norma knew that she couldn’t stay on the path she was on. She found herself homeless and ready for a change in her life. A new direction started for Norma at Team Rosie’s Place in Boston, which is where she found Back on My Feet. The team became Norma’s family. She calls them her sisters. They offered her a support system that Norma had never had.
Norma felt especially excited by Back on My Feet’s Next Steps program. She learned from the resources provided, attended courses in financial aid, financial literacy, life skills, nutrition, and goal setting. Back on My Feet provided Norma access to social programs that helped empower her. Norma feels that Back on My Feet gave her stronger self-esteem, pride in her accomplishments, and a sense of self-worth.
Back on My Feet, Norma says, helped her turn her life around by teaching her to set goals, make plans to reach those goals, and appreciate the steps along the way. Norma explains proudly, “Those goals and successes start to grow and next thing you know, you are graduating from Harvard!”
Indeed, Norma graduated from Harvard with a degree in psychology, and she was hired as a Network Leader for Union Capital Boston, an organization that transforms social capital into opportunity. Norma also works as the Executive Assistant at Open Doors to the Arts (ODA). ODA is a program run by the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Boston that provides low-income members of the mental health recovery community with access to low-cost or free arts and entertainment opportunities.
Dexter grew up in a tight knit community in Guyana. After coming out as a teenager, Dexter was ostracized, kicked out of his family home, and brutally attacked in the streets. He went from growing up in a community that preached that they were each other’s keepers to finding himself alone and with no family to which to turn. At a crossroads, he immigrated to the United States in 2016 and used his culinary arts experience to become an assistant baker in New York City.
Unfortunately, Dexter was injured on the job and found himself unable to pay his rent and homeless. He entered the New York City Rescue, nervous about his future. He knew that to move forward he needed a job obtain self-sufficiency. But, to do so, he needed help and direction.
From the Mission, he noticed Back on My Feet running each morning. Curious, he decided to give it a try. “Walking up to my first circle up with the team, I was very nervous. I was skeptical and thinking I’d be judged or singled out, but it turned out different than I could ever anticipate… I was embraced. That first Back on My Feet circle up, joining the team, receiving hugs and welcome without question was the first time I’d experienced tolerance in my life. I was used to being judged and segregated… Back on My Feet welcomed me in and loved me as a teammate.”
Through Back on My Feet, Dexter attended LinkedIn workshops and the Financial Literacy Program, every day taking steps to secure his own apartment and a new job. Even after he moved into his own place (Back on My Feet helped him with his security deposit through financial aid), he continued to run with his Back on My Feet teammates whenever he could. Their support and love helped him through the difficult time when his mother passed away in Guyana. She died waiting for an ambulance. After her passing, he realized that he wanted to change careers and become an EMT to help others. “With the courage, skills, and support network I’d gained from Back on My Feet, I decided to enroll in EMT school and became a certified emergency medical technician in the state of New York.”
Today, Dexter serves as an EMT in New York City and was recently at work along the race route for the United Airlines Half Marathon while his teammates were running and volunteering. As Dexter says, he has gone from “homelessness to hero” because of the guidance and support from Back on My Feet.
Luis grew up in a loving home in a rough neighborhood of New York. He experienced violence on the streets as a young man and, to escape, eventually joined the US Army. During active combat in Desert Storm, he suffered a traumatic injury and was unsure if he’d ever walk again.
Now an injured veteran, Luis returned home and struggled to recover. Like many former military members, he suffered pain, anxiety, and depression. Luis ended up using and selling drugs to survive. His life ultimately unraveled. His marriage ended; he lost contact with his family; and he felt very alone.
Getting arrested was not new for Luis. The way that he was coping with the violence and struggles of his past had led him down a negative path. Yet, his last arrest turned out to be a cloud with a silver lining. At Rikers Island on drug charges, Luis sought a plea deal that would allow him to change his life for the better. He went to a veteran addiction and treatment facility where he found Back on My Feet.
After everything he had been through, Luis was determined to make a change with the help of Back on My Feet. Mile by mile, he built strength in his leg. He was so successful that he discovered that he would no longer need surgery. Astoundingly, Luis ran 3 marathons and 6 half marathons after a leg injury that was supposed to mean he’d never walk again.
In addition to improving his health, Luis also built relationships with Back on My Feet volunteers. He realized that mending the social connections in his life was also fundamental to his life-altering transformation. Luis renewed relationships with his family and set goals for his future. He found a place to live, got a job at Marriott/White Lodging, and then quickly got promoted.
Even with all the responsibilities of his new job, Luis never misses a Back on My Feet event and works eagerly as a mentor to new members. Running with Back on My Feet was the beginning of a new path for Luis. He feels better physically. He’s found meaningful work. And he has rebuilt family ties.
Luis’s ex-wife, whom he met when they were just teenagers, came with him to a recent Back on My Feet gala. It was the perfect spot for Luis to honor how much his life has changed. Surrounded by the volunteers who were part of his transformation, Luis proposed to his former high school sweetheart. She accepted.
Eliyah is a military veteran who struggled with addiction for over thirty years. After leaving the US Army, he ended up homeless and on the street, but he knew that he wanted to make a change. A Veteran’s Affairs caseworker suggested that he work with the Salvation Army Residential Recovery Program in Atlanta.
While in the recovery program, Eilyah joined Back on My Feet in 2013. The decision changed his life for the better. “It’s hard to explain what the Back on My Feet community and resources can mean to a person coming out of homelessness or addiction,” he explains.
Eliyah was able to get a job with Marriott through Back on My Feet three years ago and now works at the W Hotel in Atlanta. He believes that his work with Marriott has also been transformative. He credits the position with offering him “many opportunities to grow.” Finding Back on My Feet in 2013 was just the beginning of a new life for him.
Today, Eliyah remains dedicated to Back on My Feet. He fundraises for the organization; he’s completed five marathons; and he has joined the Associate Board. In December, he will graduate from Atlanta Technical College with a degree in HVAC/R.
A veteran of the US Army, Shawn suffered a back injury while serving, and during treatment, became addicted to the painkillers. It wasn’t long before he was also addicted to heroin.
In a three-year span, Shawn lived in six different states. As he explains it, “[I was] under the delusion that a fresh start in a new place was all I needed to kick this thing. … I was strung out, homeless, broke, hungry, and lonely. … No family, no friends, no life.”
Shawn was lost. He wanted to see his family, he wanted to get clean, and he wanted to have a life. “For years, I lived plagued with guilt, embarrassed and ashamed, lost in the grips of my addiction,” he says.
Shawn then entered a rehab facility, which is where he heard about Back on My Feet. When he started, Shawn says that he was out of shape, still a smoker, and couldn’t even run a couple miles. Today, however, Shawn is a changed man. He completed the Austin Marathon this year and ran a 100k ultra marathon over the Bandera, Texas hill country. He has reconnected with his family, something very important to him, and their relationship is thriving.
Joining Back on My Feet was such a transformative experience for Shawn that he has now qualified for the elite 2019 Western States 100k ultra marathon. Shawn is now also getting his personal trainer certification through financial aid from Back on My Feet.
For almost 10 years, Mirinia, who goes by ‘M,’ put her kids first. Raising three beautiful special needs children as a single mom had not been easy, but M did well until a divorce and then the recession, and her family lost everything, including their home. Unexpectedly homeless, M made the difficult decision to move her children across the country to live with other family members. There she felt her children would still be able to follow their dreams of going to college.
After years of single motherhood, M had to figure out how to put herself first. She soon found help at the Lawson House YMCA, where she joined Back on My Feet. M didn’t think of herself as a runner, but the support and caring social contact offered by Back on My Feet’s volunteers encouraged her to try. As her health improved, so did her outlook on life. Through the Next Steps program, Tools for Success and Financial Literacy classes, M began to think about what it would take to have a better financial future. She was inspired by the academic success of her children, especially that of her oldest son. “If Emmett, who had to repeat 4th grade three times, could get on the dean’s list at his community college, then what’s my excuse?” she said. Working with Back on My Feet, M began to set new goals for her life.
She pushed herself to return to school, finishing her GED, and then going on for her Associates. But she didn’t stop there. M juggled full-time work and school (a 3.91 GPA!), while she trained for her first full marathon in 2016. When she crossed the finish line at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, M said that she realized, “I am limitless!”
That sense of accomplishment and unbridled possibility led M to dream big and apply for a B.A. at an Ivy League school. She filled out her applications at Back on My Feet offices and read essay after application essay to the patient staff. When she received her acceptance letter – and notification of a partial scholarship! – from Columbia University, M felt another one of her dreams had come true. Back on My Feet was even able to assist M by using financial aid to pay for the deposit for her student housing the first semester.
With the support of her school counselors, children, friends, and Back on My Feet, M is thriving at Columbia, where she is majoring in psychology and minoring in German and has maintained a 3.67 GPA – all while continuing to work full-time as a barista at Starbucks. She is slated to graduate from Columbia in the Spring of 2020 when she hopes to go on to graduate school and fulfill her dream of becoming a clinical psychologist serving the autism and learning-disabled community.
David grew up in a quiet suburb outside Baltimore. He went to Towson University and graduated with a B.A. in International Studies. Yet, David had always struggled with alcoholism, and while living with his parents after graduation, his addiction grew to include other drugs daily.
Because of his addiction, it was a challenge for David to maintain his job and a healthy relationship with his parents, who eventually forced him out of the house. He wandered Baltimore streets for days, high, with nowhere to go, before ending up in the psychiatric ward of a local hospital and then in a recovery facility.
David learned about Back on My Feet while doing chores at the facility. He realized that the organization could fill an extremely important social component that he “longed for”—it could provide him with a sense of purpose. Volunteers and fellow members of Back on My Feet did just that. They encouraged David to never give up and to strive for a better life, even after a brief relapse.
Through Back on My Feet, David got a job, first at the Marriott as a night auditor, and then additionally as a Front Desk Manager at the Royal Sonesta. Both were direct referrals from Back on My Feet, and both were building blocks for his most recent success: a new job as a Financial Services Representative at a large financial firm.
Back on My Feet was such a part of David’s success that he decided to join their Young Professionals Board, assisting in the creation of the local Alumni Association. Impressively, David has run five marathons with Back on My Feet, including his most recent, the 2018 Boston Marathon, benefiting Back on My Feet.
Read more about David and his road to Boston in the Boston Magazine!
