WE HAVE GOOD NEWS TO SHARE ABOUT JEFFREY!

“Look at me now! From my apartment window, I can see the doorway I used to sleep in.”

Jeffrey has come a long way. He refers to himself as “an old timer” around St. Patrick Center and the Shamrock Club Day Treatment program. After retiring from the military with a disability, Jeffrey had trouble adjusting to civilian life. He became addicted to alcohol and drugs, and lost everything, including his inheritance.

Jeffrey says he had a spiritual awakening one day when he woke up on the dock of a downtown St. Louis building. “Lord, I’m tired,” he prayed. “I’m tired of being homeless, of begging, of bouncing from shelter to shelter, of being in severe pain from dope sickness.” Jeffrey came to St. Patrick Center and joined the Shamrock Club.

“I failed the program at first,” Jeffrey recalls. “I was holding back but later decided to submit to the discipline and change my life.” Jeffrey also became the first client (and graduate) of SPC’s Project HERO program for veterans. His case managers helped him transition to housing and today he can look out and see where he used to sleep on the streets.

Jeffrey has also become an advocate for those struggling with homelessness and mental illness. He participates in meetings and support groups; he’s been clean and sober for more than three years. “St. Patrick Center was a life saver to me.”

1. Cheyenne

   August 20, 2011 at 6:34 am

   Keep these acrtlies coming as they’ve opened many new doors for me.