A New Direction: Carly’s Story

The rain fell hard that day, the kind of downpour that soaks through your soul. On the steps of New Directions, Carly stood drenched, exhausted, and terrified. Her clothes clung to her body like the memories she couldn’t shake, and her eyes were wide with desperation. She had nowhere else to go.

Inside, Danielle Walters, the Director of the Women and Family Services at New Directions heard the knock. She opened the door to see a woman with trembling hands and tear-streaked cheeks. Carly looked up through the rain. “Miss Danielle,” she said, her voice cracking, “I’ll do anything. Just give me a bus pass. Please. I can’t be out there anymore.”

Danielle didn’t hesitate. “Get in here,” she said, pulling Carly into the warmth and safety of the shelter. That moment changed everything.

Carly had arrived at New Directions before, but this time was different. Just weeks before, her partner had been arrested, leaving her alone on the streets. A friend of hers had recently been found murdered in a trash can. Carly knew what could happen to a woman alone out there. The streets were no longer survivable, they were deadly.

“I hadn’t slept in days,” Carly recalled. “I was falling asleep sitting up, I was scared out of my mind, and I had nowhere to turn.” But Danielle had turned the knob on a door Carly thought had long been closed - hope.

She started with nothing. No ID. No social security card. No driver’s license. “Without that, you’re stuck,” she explained. “You can’t work. You can’t rent a place. You don’t even exist on paper.”

Danielle made it her mission to help Carly reclaim her identity, and her dignity. “That was the first door that opened everything else,” Carly said.

She stayed the weekend. Then another. Then six months. Eventually, she earned a three-month extension, and after nine months at New Directions, she successfully completed New Directions Pathways Program.

Employment was another hurdle. Carly had felonies on her record, baggage that often-slammed doors shut before she could even knock. Eventually she was given a chance at Fresh Brewed coffee house. Carly showed up. She worked hard. She stayed clean.

Recently, Carly celebrated one full year of sobriety. She has an apartment of her own. A real home.

“I plant flowers now,” Carly said with a shy smile. “I love my neighbors.”