Resident finds independence, freedom at Dallas Hope Charities

Adrian runs away from abusive household, gets GED

Adrian grew up in a reality split between a single mother who craved a picture-perfect relationship with her daughter and a father who wanted nothing to do with more children, much less a girl.

Adrian grew up bouncing between their mother and father’s separate households. At their father’s, Adrian was raised like a son and put in charge of caring for Adrian’s two younger half-siblings. Adrian’s mother tried to take the brunt of their father’s drunken violence but his anger still affected them. In their junior year of high school, Adrian’s mother pulled them out of school saying it was to protect Adrian’s mental health. Their mother controlled everything in Adrian’s life including their medications, bank account, and who they could text. Adrian was completely isolated from a support system and held back from graduating from homeschool.

Even though Adrian had completed all their final senior projects, their mother wasn’t allowing them to graduate so Adrian ran away from home and immediately got their GED.

“I was not expecting as many resources as I have been given which is a beautiful thing…that kind of basic stuff like just getting on my feet and learning how to function as an adult because I was never given the chance to be independent with when I was living with my mom.”

“I went to a friend’s house for a few days,” Adrian said. “I had started the application to get into [the Hope Center] while I was still at my mom’s house… I had access to a computer at a friend’s house who was very supportive of me getting out and I actually stayed at their house for a while until I got approved and moved here.”

Adrian was under a lot of pressure growing up in their father’s abusive household and raising her younger half-siblings. Their mother was chronically ill so when staying with their mother, Adrian often had to take care of the household work while their mother rested.

”So it also created this kind of perfect storm of nobody understands me and so I kind of also isolated myself a lot. And it got to the point where when I realized I was queer, that I didn’t have a support system outside of my mom.”

“I also was bullied a lot growing up because I did not understand a lot of social cues which didn’t help,” Adrian said. ”So it also created this kind of perfect storm of nobody understands me and so I kind of also isolated myself a lot. And it got to the point where when I realized I was queer, that I didn’t have a support system outside of my mom.”

When Adrian came out to her mother as bisexual, their mother said she already knew and seemed happy to accept Adrian’s sexuality.

“And then I came out to her as trans multiple times and each time she blew up at me,” Adrian said. “I never talked about it again until it ate me up inside and I was like, yo, I need to deal with this. And then she would yell and scream at me and didn’t talk to me for days.”

After they left home, Adrian’s friends helped them to get around while between housing and took her to buy new clothes.

“There was no bus station nearby, I had to rely on people to drive me,” Adrian said. “That was a big challenge and then also trying to get all of my legal documents because I had nothing with me when I left. Pretty much I had a suitcase full of just random clean clothes. And that was it. I couldn’t even like take the bottles of my medication with me because my mom had them locked up.”

The first thing Adrian did when they arrived at the Hope Center was obtain their school transcripts, birth certificate and get set up with the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). Their next goals are to start driver’s ed, get a job as a preschool teacher and apply for college.

“this place is very much teaching you how to be independent, Trying to get you life skills that you need and teach you how to integrate into society as an adult.”

“I’m pretty set up right now, Adrian said. “[Dallas Hope Charities] is great. I love it. I was not expecting as many resources as I have been given, which is a beautiful thing… that kind of basic stuff like just getting on my feet and learning how to function as an adult because I was never given the chance to be independent with when I was living with my mom.”

Now that Adrian has their transcripts and GED, they want to attend college to study forensic science with a concentration in toxicology. Their end goal is to be a medical examiner. They also look forward to continuing the build of their instrument and resuming martial arts.

“This place is very much teaching you how to be independent,” Adrian said. “Trying to get you life skills that you need and teach you how to integrate into society as an adult… Particularly because it will get you out of that environment that you need to just not be in and into a place where you can become yourself, figure out who you are, what you want to do with your life and have a place over your head, have food in your mouth to be able to do thatd