Editor’s note: This is part 3 of a three-part series on Family Promise of Gwinnett, a program which helps homeless families return to a normal life. In this part we see what the program has become and meet its star student.
While it took years to deal with the emotional aftermath of being homeless, Stephanie Potra’s contempt for Family Promise didn’t last nearly as long.
Potra had been in a spiral of depression and rebellion since winding up in the Family Promise shelter program as a teenager with her parents and little brothers. She had resented everything about the experience, carrying the trauma with her, turning to drugs and alcohol, lashing out at authority and becoming a teen mother and later a hoarder. Constantly in trouble at school and with the law, it had taken more than one trip to the precipice to force her to face reality.
After being told by a judge that she could lose her daughter if she didn’t straighten up, Potra said she was on a better trajectory for a while. Her mom had always taken her to volunteer at church, but she switched to volunteering at Family Promise. As a high school senior, she even led a food drive to help the nonprofit, and instead of hiding her experience she began to tell people how the program helped.
But it was while she was clearing her home of junk, that she realized just what one simple act from a volunteer had done for her.
The Christmas Shirt
Potra pulled out a ragged old T-shirt, which she immediately tossed in the trash but then quickly retrieved. It had some illegible Santa Claus saying on it, was way too big (an XXXL), faded and frayed. Someone had given it to her for Christmas while she was at Family Promise. She remembered thinking it was a dumb gift. What was she going to do with it? She weighed barely 100 pounds.
But she also remembered another thought she had: That they should’ve spent the money on her brothers….
