Ronda and her two children were homeless for the better part of seven years. The long-term effects of a heart attack at age 31 caused her to lose her job and their home. Ronda’s children stayed with family and friends while she slept in her car at a nearby park. “As long as my children had a place to stay,” Ronda recalls, “I was okay.” Ronda’s experience with homelessness intensified her declining sense of self-worth. She was in an abusive relationship and developed a severe drug addiction. “You fall into a bad crowd, a bad situation,” Ronda warns, “and you feel stuck with no choice.” When she learned she was pregnant she chose to leave and begin her journey toward recovery.
Ronda was referred to Solid Ground through the Mothers First program. “Oh my goodness!” She says as she recalls her move in day, “I came here and it was amazing! Finally, stability again!” While living at East Metro Place, Ronda participated in every class she was offered. “I never finished high school,” Ronda told her advocate, who encouraged her to go for her GED. Although she struggled a bit with the math, with the help of a Solid Ground tutor, she passed! “My daughter was so proud of me!” Ronda exclaims. “I couldn’t have achieved it without Solid Ground.”
“This place allows you an opportunity to change, to make your life better,” Ronda says with a smile. Three years sober now, Ronda and her children recently moved out of Solid Ground and into a beautiful town-home. “Seeing what I’ve done, seeing what they can do, has built them up,” Ronda says about her children. “Working together, we can be happy. We can do this!”