Sharmayne didn’t know what to expect when she walked through the doors of Joy House, our shelter for women and children. She’d only seen shelters in movies.

“I was terrified,” she says. “Then I got here, and I thought, These people are really nice. They’re actually trying to help me. So I gave it a chance. That’s all I could do — take a leap of faith.”

She needed more than a place to sleep. She needed room to heal — to step back from years of hard circumstances and a dependence on marijuana she’d been trying to shake for a long time.

“I needed to find somewhere I could be stable and think and process everything that went on in my life.”

That’s exactly what she found here. Joy House provided meals, clothing and a structured environment that asked something of her in return — accountability, consistency and a willingness to grow. Room checks, made beds, shared space … small disciplines that began reshaping how she moved through each day.

Then came the Renew program where the disciplines she’d already started building in Joy House opened a door to something more.

“The staff taught me budgeting, financial management, how to manage emotions, boundaries — even connecting with the Lord,” Sharmayne says. “They really gave me a lot of resources I did not think I needed. I’m taking those resources and applying them when I leave here. I feel like I’m going to be very successful.”

Sharmayne’s path to recovery included regular daily testing, reinforcing her commitment to stay clean and accountability to long-term sobriety. “I’ve been trying to get away from that drug for so long,” she says. “Marijuana had such a hold on me. I’m so glad I am sober. I am clean. I don’t plan on picking that back up — that is not for my growth.”

Sharmayne also grew in her faith. She was baptized at a home church she found with the help of Joy House. “I always looked at myself as a butterfly in a cocoon. My wings are forming, and I’m about to break out and fly.”

To those who make Joy House possible, Sharmayne wants you to know: “Thank you to all the donors and supporters. You don’t know how deeply I appreciate and respect you. I came in here with little to no clothes, and now I have what I need and more. It helps us know that even people we don’t know want to see us thrive.”