FRESH Start a safe haven for mom, 3 kids

Five-year-old Aiden spent two months at FRESH Start with his mother, Desirae, and brothers, Jace, 2, and Joel, 1. They were discharged from the shelter and resource center last week and will celebrate Christmas in their new home in Lancaster.

​As 5-year-old Aiden and 2-year-old Jace watched "The Grinch," their 1-year-old brother, Joel, slept in the playroom at FRESH Start’s resource center at Lebanon County Christian Ministries.

It was discharge day – one week before Christmas - at the place they called home for more than two months.

Their mother, Desirae, moved to Lebanon from Lancaster with the kids earlier this year to stay at a friend’s apartment. Her friend, however, was soon evicted, leaving Desirae scrambling to find somewhere safe to live with her children.

“It was stressful – it was sad,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

She had a heartbreaking thought – would she have to take a drastic step and put her kids in temporary foster care until she could find a place to stay?

A family member told her not to entertain the idea.
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But time was ticking.

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“I have depression, so it made it worse – it was really coming down on me,” she said.

That weekend, she found out about FRESH Start Emergency Shelter and Resource Center. After speaking to FRESH Start staff, the intake process went quickly and she and her children were able to get into the shelter that day.

“It took a lot of stress off of me and the kids,” she said. “It’s a safe haven for a lot of families and people who need it.”

Now safe, Desirae could spend her energy outlining goals with the assistance from staff to get her back on her feet. Instead of worrying about where she was going to live, she found part-time work, applied for food stamps and WIC and obtained day care for her children.

Meanwhile, her children made friends with the other children in the shelter, played with toys in the playroom at the resource center and had fun making crafts with staff. 

Desirae and her children moved back to Lancaster that day to live with her mother, who recently secured stable housing.

“It just worked out – things are definitely going to get better, I think,” she said.
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Her next step is to apply for jobs in the Lancaster area and obtain her driver’s license.

​For now, she is grateful that her children will be home for Christmas, watching her children open presents from a generous family that adopted her own for the holiday.

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Written by Andrea Gillhoolley, development manager, Lebanon County Christian Ministries. Contact her at andrea@lccm.us or call (717) 272 4400 ext. 211 to find out how you can become a supporter of LCCM to help change lives in Lebanon County. ​

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Jace, 2, spent two months at FRESH Start with his mother, Desirae, and brothers, Aiden, 5, and Joel, 1.