Haven Housing @ St. Anne’s Place's annual back-to-school party is always filled with smiles. For more than a decade, employees at RBC Wealth Management have helped ensure that any child who has ever stayed at the emergency shelter can get a backpack and the supplies they need to start the school year. If you look deeper, the event is also a chance for families to heal and build their support network.

Before you can help others, you have to take care of yourself. Sarah (33) struggled with addiction for years. In 2018, she found out she was pregnant with her daughter Aubrianna and knew she wanted her life to change.

At first, she felt ashamed and upset about having to seek emergency shelter at Haven Housing @ St. Anne’s Place. But, then, she recalls feeling immediate relief when she saw all the opportunities for growth Haven Housing offered.

Randi moved into her own apartment in Brainerd, Minnesota in July 2022, after living at Haven Housing @ Ascension Place, a transitional housing program, for four years. For her, it’s not just a new home, it’s a homecoming.

Alex has set his sights further in where he hopes football will take him. After completing a successful season, Alex plans to continue working on his game and hopes to play football, the game he loves, in high school and in college.

Over the past four decades at Haven Housing, we have seen how the gift of a fresh start isn’t just a new place to call home, it’s a new mindset and set of skills for pursuing our goals and overcoming obstacles, which are passed on from parent to child.

“Running two marathons was about willpower, but alcoholism is a disease. I wish more people understood that,” says Jennifer, a former resident of Haven Housing’s Ascension Place sober supportive housing program.

Short stories written by Haven Housing shelter guests and residents, showing their strength and resilience in honor of Women’s History Month 2022.

Anna’s* goals are like most twenty-something-year-olds. Find a stable job, build her credit, and then buy a home for her family. It’s the American dream.