Creating Space to Breathe.

When Ariyonna first walked into Outreach, she looked like someone holding her life together with whatever threads she had left. She had been staying in an Airbnb, juggling an externship, and doing everything she could to keep a roof over her head.

“I was donating plasma every week just so I’d have somewhere to stay and something to eat,” she said. “I was asking people for money. I was stressed and heartbroken. I didn’t know what tomorrow was going to look like.”

In a single month, she had spent five thousand dollars on the Airbnb. This was money she didn’t really have. When she couldn’t pay for one more night, she asked the owner if he could give her just a little time. Just one night. One chance to catch up.

“He wouldn’t give me one night free,” she said. “Not even after everything I’d already paid.”

She stood there with nowhere to go and no one to call. She was 24, exhausted, and running out of options faster than she could think of new ones.

Then she came to Outreach.

She walked through the doors carrying bags, and a kind of heaviness that you can see even though she was smiling. Resource Advocate Maria sat her down right away. “You look tired,” she told her. “Let’s figure this out together.”

They got her food. Found a place for her belongings. Drove her back to the Airbnb to gather her things safely. After that, they called shelters until someone agreed to hold a bed for her.

“That night, I had somewhere to sleep,” she said. “By the time I left Outreach, I was fed, I was full, I was happy. Everything I’d been worried about that morning was gone.”

The shelter gave her 30 days of stability.

With that stability, Ariyonna was able to finish her externship. She completed her training. And she walked the stage, as a certified medical assistant.

“I have a car now. I have an apartment. I feel like I can finally breathe,” she said.

When she talks about her new place, her eyes light up. She tells the story slowly, savoring each detail.

“I washed the walls,” she said, laughing a little at herself. “Then I sat on my patio and just breathed. It’s peaceful. It’s mine. I don’t have to wonder where I’m sleeping or whether someone’s going to kick me out. I put my key in the door and turn the lock. All for me.”

Her joy feels like sunlight after a long stretch of storm clouds.

But what stands out most is how she talks about who she wants to become. She wants her kids home with her. She wants peace…not just peaceful moments. She wants to stop living in survival mode and start living a life that feels steady, hopeful, hers.

“If it wasn’t for Outreach, I probably wouldn’t be better than what I was a couple months ago,” she said. “They gave me the push I needed.”

Ariyonna’s journey is the kind we hold close at Outreach. It’s a story of exhaustion turned into rest, exhaustion turned into clarity, and survival turned into true stability. She walked in our doors heartbroken and hungry, unsure how she would make it through the next twenty-four hours. Now, she walks into her own apartment, turns her own key, and breathes without panic for the first time in years.

But her story isn’t the only one like this. Dozens of young people walk through our doors every single week carrying the same weight. Youth who are one safe night, one helping hand, one open door away from a completely different life.

This is what your generosity makes possible.

When you give, you create a moment like the one where Ariyonna sat on her new patio and was able to truly breathe for the first time.

This holiday season, you can be the reason another young person finally finds home.
Give to Outreach today and help create more stories like Ariyonna’s. Stories that begin in crisis but end with keys, peace, and a future worth dreaming about.