Latest / Groove with Portia / When a Bullet Changed Her Life Forever

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When a Bullet Changed Her Life Forever · Groove with Portia

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome to Group Porsche, the podcast that uncovers the hidden
0:09
Speaker 1: treasures within grief. I'm your host, Porsche of the Producer,
0:12
Speaker 1: and I'm inviting you to join me on a transformative
0:15
Speaker 1: journey where we were exchange laughter of course the best
0:18
Speaker 1: medicine of them all, reflect on cherished memories, Remember that
0:21
Speaker 1: time that the little boy grabbed my hand instead of
0:23
Speaker 1: his mother's at the amusement park yikes, And of course,
0:26
Speaker 1: discover gratitude while navigating one of life's hardest challenges lost.
0:31
Speaker 1: So get ready to grow with me, Porsche the Producer,
0:35
Speaker 1: let's dive in. Hello everybody, and welcome back to grou
0:46
Speaker 1: with Porsche. For starters everyone, If you don't remember who
0:50
Speaker 1: I am, I'm Porsche Booker. I am your host and founder,
0:52
Speaker 1: and don't forget please to like, share and subscribe to
0:55
Speaker 1: you with the latest and greatest of all with Grew
0:57
Speaker 1: with Porsche. So you, guys. One of the things that
1:00
Speaker 1: I often get asked is Portia, how do you do it?
1:04
Speaker 1: Why do you keep a smile on your face despite
1:07
Speaker 1: all the loss that you've had, despite all of the
1:11
Speaker 1: pivots and shifts in your career? How do you do it?
1:15
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I love to tell
1:16
Speaker 1: people is that gratitude is my superpower. Gratitude is that
1:20
Speaker 1: life jacket that keeps you afloat during seasons of adversity,
1:24
Speaker 1: during seasons of grief, and it really helps you to
1:28
Speaker 1: shift your mindset and perspective on life if you adopt
1:31
Speaker 1: an attitude of gratitude. So, today, everybody, I have the
1:35
Speaker 1: honor of having miss Janine power Read, who also shares
1:39
Speaker 1: that same superpower. She is the founder of Jones House
1:45
Speaker 1: of Refuge and she's one of those individuals who, like me,
1:48
Speaker 1: keeps that smile on her face despite all the obstacles
1:51
Speaker 1: that she's been through. So welcome Janine to Groul Porscha
1:54
Speaker 1: I want today.
1:56
Speaker 2: Hello, Hello, Hello everybody. Thank you Porscha having me.
2:01
Speaker 1: Janny. I remember first shout out to Lisa Counsel for interest. Yes,
2:07
Speaker 1: because when I heard your story while producing her show
2:12
Speaker 1: those of you who know her show is called Shifts,
2:13
Speaker 1: Self Healing, Ignited, Version, Transformation, and I was reminded of
2:18
Speaker 1: the importance of making the best of everything despite all
2:22
Speaker 1: of the things that we may go through. And so, Janine,
2:25
Speaker 1: for starters, what are you grateful for today? I mean,
2:27
Speaker 1: you just radiate in positivity anyway. So what are you
2:31
Speaker 1: grateful for today today?
2:34
Speaker 2: I am grateful for having a sound mind. I am
2:41
Speaker 2: so grateful for my sound mind and my piece and
2:46
Speaker 2: my peace.
2:47
Speaker 1: Ooh, you can say that again, because that's for a
2:51
Speaker 1: whole another that's a whole series. We could talk about
2:56
Speaker 1: your peace. Yes, in the world, there's so much, if
3:00
Speaker 1: you want to call it turmoil and everything that wants
3:04
Speaker 1: to fight for your attention, whether it's social the billboards outside,
3:08
Speaker 1: the people that are you know, walking chickens with shoe strings.
3:12
Speaker 1: True story, that's something I saw, But that's a whole
3:14
Speaker 1: another story. Need Janine, one of the things that I
3:20
Speaker 1: recall you mentioning on Lisa's podcast is that in nineteen
3:25
Speaker 1: ninety you were a victim of a gunshot onto your
3:29
Speaker 1: head and from that you were left paralyzed from the
3:34
Speaker 1: neck down. Yes, and I'm curious, Janine, for our audience
3:39
Speaker 1: who's tuning in, can you walk us back through that
3:44
Speaker 1: day of what you can remember.
3:47
Speaker 2: I remember it all, I Porscha. I remember every inch
3:52
Speaker 2: of that day. And the story is I had gotten
4:00
Speaker 2: married in nineteen eighty nine and my then husband was
4:08
Speaker 2: in the military, and so he was stationed in Germany,
4:15
Speaker 2: and so because I had a government job and you know,
4:17
Speaker 2: housing and all that stuff, I was like, I'm not
4:19
Speaker 2: moving to Germany for six months. So he was returning.
4:23
Speaker 2: The end of his tour was in six months, and
4:25
Speaker 2: so when he when that six months was up, he
4:31
Speaker 2: came back to the States and then we got stationed
4:34
Speaker 2: in Fort Or, California, and so he left me here
4:41
Speaker 2: so to speak, and then went to go get everything
4:44
Speaker 2: in order, where later to find out everything was in order,
4:48
Speaker 2: he just wasn't telling me. Moving forward, some friends gave
4:53
Speaker 2: me a going away party, and at that party, some
5:00
Speaker 2: people that I know very closely got into an altercation
5:04
Speaker 2: with some people some people that were there, and about
5:09
Speaker 2: three am I was leaving the party. The party was over,
5:14
Speaker 2: but the people came back for the other people, so
5:17
Speaker 2: to speak, and so I'm like, they're in the middle
5:21
Speaker 2: standing at my car, and when I looked up, I
5:24
Speaker 2: saw them, and then I looked over there and I
5:26
Speaker 2: saw them. And then after that all I saw was
5:30
Speaker 2: sparks of fire and I had been hit in the head,
5:36
Speaker 2: so falling to the ground in my own pool of blood,
5:41
Speaker 2: all I can remember was repenting and telling God it
5:48
Speaker 2: ain't time for me to go. I haven't had children.
5:52
Speaker 2: I just got married, and I begged him that I
5:55
Speaker 2: would do his will if he let me live. To
6:00
Speaker 2: this day, God continues to remind me, Luke girl, remember
6:05
Speaker 2: what you saw me on nine, nine ninety at three
6:09
Speaker 2: am in the morning when the paramedics was cutting your
6:12
Speaker 2: sweatsuit and you tell them, don't got your sweatsuit because
6:15
Speaker 2: you was gonna wet it again. I meant that, and
6:18
Speaker 2: so being what do you call it? Metavac to PG
6:23
Speaker 2: County Hospital? What is it Prince George's Community Hospital or
6:27
Speaker 2: something like that. PG Hospital was what it was called,
6:31
Speaker 2: and they just recently tore it down, and I was
6:34
Speaker 2: like wow. But I remember getting out of that helicopter
6:38
Speaker 2: and going in and waiting maybe about three and a
6:41
Speaker 2: half hours for a surgeon to come in from John Hopkins.
6:46
Speaker 2: I remember my grandmother, you know, like my entire family.
6:50
Speaker 2: Like the hospital was lit. Okay, but I just remember
6:54
Speaker 2: them talking to me and you know, just staying positive
6:59
Speaker 2: and you know, just saying you're gonna make it through this.
7:04
Speaker 2: I stayed in I see you for about a week
7:08
Speaker 2: and they were saying like they didn't know if I
7:11
Speaker 2: was going to make it because the bullet hit my crania,
7:18
Speaker 2: that bone exploded, and so a lot of the paralysis
7:23
Speaker 2: was caused by them trying to get those fragments. I
7:26
Speaker 2: still had fragments in my head to this day. I'm
7:29
Speaker 2: not able to receive MRI eyes. I can only do
7:32
Speaker 2: the catskins, which a lot of times do not detect
7:35
Speaker 2: what they're looking for. But I got moved the second
7:41
Speaker 2: week to a regular room, and then the week after that,
7:46
Speaker 2: I was moved to NRH National Rehabilitation Hospital that's over
7:50
Speaker 2: there in DC, across from Washington Hospital Center. And they
7:53
Speaker 2: were very, very new, and so they it was the
7:57
Speaker 2: top of the line. Like I thought I was gonna
7:59
Speaker 2: be let back looking at the soap operas. They were like, no, sis,
8:03
Speaker 2: you this is a route. This listen, this is business.
8:06
Speaker 2: So I had to get up, learn how to get
8:09
Speaker 2: dressed with the help of porters that came to get me.
8:13
Speaker 2: But it was like routine. But I was in the
8:15
Speaker 2: hospital for about six months total. After my insurance regular
8:22
Speaker 2: insurance ran out, they moved me over to Walter Reed
8:26
Speaker 2: because I was a military spouse at the time, so
8:29
Speaker 2: that champ is you know. They were like, listen, you
8:31
Speaker 2: got to move over here, but I total total time
8:35
Speaker 2: for six months and then I returned home, not knowing
8:38
Speaker 2: what I was going to do. But I had my
8:42
Speaker 2: job and so I was like, I got to go
8:43
Speaker 2: back to work. And so one of my colleagues volunteered
8:48
Speaker 2: to pick me up and take me to work. But honey,
8:54
Speaker 2: I just tell you that people who don't understand disability
8:57
Speaker 2: or have the system down path, you know. So she
9:00
Speaker 2: left part of my wheelchair on the sidewalk one day,
9:03
Speaker 2: and I was like, this ain't gonna work. So I
9:05
Speaker 2: need to get my own call. I need to get
9:07
Speaker 2: back at the swing of things so and become you know,
9:10
Speaker 2: independent and self sufficient. So I mean, and I was
9:13
Speaker 2: very grateful that she was, you know, willing to come
9:15
Speaker 2: and get me, but it became too much. So I
9:19
Speaker 2: finally got back in the swing of things and returned
9:21
Speaker 2: to work, and it was it was different. It was difficult,
9:26
Speaker 2: you know, learning how to learning how to walk again,
9:29
Speaker 2: walking with the cane, start with the wheelchair, then the cane,
9:32
Speaker 2: and then you know, typing with one hand, just adjusting
9:37
Speaker 2: to this new person. And I got through it. I
9:42
Speaker 2: was a customer service specialist at the Office of Personnel management,
9:48
Speaker 2: and so I got back into the swing of things,
9:50
Speaker 2: and you know, a lot of things triggered me. You know,
9:54
Speaker 2: it made me very nervous, very paranoid, you know, just
9:58
Speaker 2: always watching my back. So it was a lot that
10:01
Speaker 2: came with it. But I saw it on through my
10:04
Speaker 2: career up until twenty twenty one I retired, and even
10:07
Speaker 2: in the middle of all of that, I did different things.
10:11
Speaker 2: I became a licensed hairstylist. I'll never forget going to
10:15
Speaker 2: the hair school and they were looking like, you know,
10:18
Speaker 2: who's has she gonna do? Limping on one side. Couldn't
10:21
Speaker 2: keep him out my cheer on Saturdays.
10:23
Speaker 1: Okay, So right, don't put a clamp on my regime
10:29
Speaker 1: just because that's sad thing that I'm able.
10:32
Speaker 2: People have been doing it to me for a long
10:35
Speaker 2: time and it's okay, but this is you know, God said,
10:40
Speaker 2: let his light shine that man may be drawn unto him.
10:43
Speaker 2: It ain't even about me. He just used me. I'm
10:47
Speaker 2: over asking God why after thirty plus years, okay, he said,
10:51
Speaker 2: because I said, so okay, So yeah, So it's been
10:57
Speaker 2: a long journey, Porsche. But I just remember that day
11:01
Speaker 2: so so clear. It was so clear. I still remember
11:05
Speaker 2: it I mean, I did a I played a part
11:09
Speaker 2: in a movie when when when when violence is all
11:13
Speaker 2: you know, And so my segment was to just tell
11:15
Speaker 2: my testimony about the same thing. And they all laugh.
11:19
Speaker 2: When I sold the paramedics to not cut my sweatsuit
11:22
Speaker 2: because I was gonna wear it again. I meant that,
11:25
Speaker 2: you know, it was brand new, like how you gonna
11:27
Speaker 2: cut my sweatsuit? And you know, that was the funniest
11:31
Speaker 2: part of the movie. But that was I knew then. Listen,
11:35
Speaker 2: I'm gonna still live, like, don't go cutting up my stuff.
11:39
Speaker 2: So I'm just really grateful for life itself. I wouldn't
11:44
Speaker 2: be who I am and would have not accomplished some
11:50
Speaker 2: of the things that I desired to do in life.
11:54
Speaker 2: I'm just grateful, that's all. Like I said, Portia, I'm
11:58
Speaker 2: just grateful. And and the journey continues.
12:03
Speaker 1: It does, I mean, it does, right, And you know
12:05
Speaker 1: what I mean, I think about this was in the nineties,
12:08
Speaker 1: and I had to say, this was before I was
12:10
Speaker 1: even thought of. So when I think about all of
12:16
Speaker 1: these years later, I'm curious, Janine, what was the shift
12:21
Speaker 1: for you to learn how to integrate the grief of
12:27
Speaker 1: who you thought you were? Going to be and who
12:30
Speaker 1: you are today as you have to still work with
12:35
Speaker 1: some of the challenges and obstacles from that incident in the.
12:41
Speaker 2: Nineties Porsche, I would say that the shift for me was, girl,
12:49
Speaker 2: you gotta make it happen, because nobody is going to
12:52
Speaker 2: make it happen. Porscha too failed marriages, that first one
12:59
Speaker 2: and then the second one. Dealing with mental health, you know,
13:07
Speaker 2: was a big one. And so, as I said before,
13:12
Speaker 2: mental health wasn't cute. Back then, you know, they said,
13:17
Speaker 2: I send you to the crazy Oh Jesus, I'm sorry,
13:20
Speaker 2: I'm gonna send you to wait. Man, of course I'm sorry.
13:24
Speaker 2: You know they say them send you to the crazy
13:26
Speaker 2: House and Saint Elizabeth and you know, things like that.
13:30
Speaker 2: That wasn't cute. But now you know it's a trend.
13:34
Speaker 2: You know, you better have a therapist. Yes, I'm going
13:37
Speaker 2: to see my therapist. Yes, I girl, I got to
13:39
Speaker 2: call you back. I'm about to get on the line
13:40
Speaker 2: with my therapist, you know, And that's real talk. And
13:44
Speaker 2: so the shift was just knowing that I had to change.
13:51
Speaker 2: It wasn't cool in the beginning because I had that
13:53
Speaker 2: woe it's me syndrome a little bit like, why did
13:57
Speaker 2: this have to happen to me? I'm a good person.
14:01
Speaker 2: But as time grew and as I developed my relationship
14:06
Speaker 2: or began to develop my relationship with God. Only through
14:10
Speaker 2: God you can see who you are and who He
14:12
Speaker 2: called you to be. I cannot go through this interview
14:17
Speaker 2: and say, oh, it was all me. No, it was
14:20
Speaker 2: God that changed my life. You know. It was the word,
14:24
Speaker 2: the Word, you know, the Word comes to to cleanse
14:28
Speaker 2: us and to make us whole. Not preaching, no sermon
14:31
Speaker 2: or nothing like that. But I gotta honestly say it
14:34
Speaker 2: was God. You know. It was worship music in my car,
14:37
Speaker 2: and it was a lot of crying, and it was
14:40
Speaker 2: just a lot of you know, self reflecting. And it
14:45
Speaker 2: seemed like every time I thought I had one thing
14:48
Speaker 2: in order, then God was showing me something else. I
14:51
Speaker 2: need you to clean up that little smart mouth, you know.
14:53
Speaker 2: And he's still working on me with that, you know.
14:57
Speaker 2: But it's all good, you know, it's all good. Like
15:02
Speaker 2: it's just a daily process every day if you let God,
15:06
Speaker 2: he'll show you. I need you to fix this and
15:08
Speaker 2: I need you to fix that. God. It's always something,
15:12
Speaker 2: you know. But that was the shift for me when
15:15
Speaker 2: I got my relationship with God and begin to work
15:19
Speaker 2: on me, begin to understand it's not always other people.
15:26
Speaker 2: Sometimes it was me. I was the problem because it
15:29
Speaker 2: was hard to make that shift. You know. In Learning
15:34
Speaker 2: to be Free, you know, God says whom the sun
15:36
Speaker 2: sets free is free. Indeed, you got to get freed
15:39
Speaker 2: up in your mind. And once you get free, you
15:40
Speaker 2: could talk about all these things that happen. But as
15:44
Speaker 2: long as we just keep on covering it up, you know,
15:47
Speaker 2: we put a little layered, little band aid on it.
15:50
Speaker 2: But guess what, Eventually that band aay't gonna get old
15:53
Speaker 2: and it's gonna come off, you know, and so you're
15:57
Speaker 2: back dealing with it again. You better deal with it
16:00
Speaker 2: or it's going to keep resurfacing. And so a lot
16:03
Speaker 2: of things I had to get in order. It took
16:06
Speaker 2: me a long time. Pusha I'm sixty, I'll be sixty
16:08
Speaker 2: in December, and sometimes I'd be like, I sixty, I
16:12
Speaker 2: have to a sixty. I was twenty four when I
16:15
Speaker 2: got shot, So it's been a long.
16:18
Speaker 1: Time, you know, Janine. I love how in the beginning
16:24
Speaker 1: you brought up being grateful for peace right and how
16:27
Speaker 1: you recognized that it wasn't always everybody else who was
16:32
Speaker 1: the problem Sometimes bottom fingers that we be pointing, we
16:38
Speaker 1: gotta take a look at there's more pointing back at us.
16:42
Speaker 1: You've also brought up the mental health piece because I think,
16:45
Speaker 1: let's be realistic, especially in communities of color, mental health
16:50
Speaker 1: is still highly stigmatized, Yes, underutilized. Yes, it's still deemed
16:57
Speaker 1: as I don't need a therapist or any type of
17:01
Speaker 1: mental health you know, help. And I'm curious, Janine, for
17:08
Speaker 1: our audience who's tuning in, what can you say to
17:14
Speaker 1: someone today who may be resistant about really getting that help,
17:23
Speaker 1: silencing that stigma, inner critic and recognizing to that, hey,
17:33
Speaker 1: I'm the problem, and that's okay, but we can fix it.
17:37
Speaker 2: That's right, we can fix it. So what I would
17:40
Speaker 2: say to that is, it's funny that you're asking me that.
17:43
Speaker 2: So even after I retired in twenty twenty one and
17:47
Speaker 2: was inflicted with the disease called transverse my light is
17:50
Speaker 2: from the COVID vaccine, I got set back a little bit.
17:56
Speaker 2: But through that journey two years ago, I told my
18:00
Speaker 2: husband I need to work, and he was like girl,
18:05
Speaker 2: And so I got online, got on indeed and looked
18:09
Speaker 2: up you know, some different jobs, and then I found
18:11
Speaker 2: this one particular job and the position was called a
18:15
Speaker 2: rehab specialist, and I began to read, you know, the
18:21
Speaker 2: duties and responsibilities, and so I was like to do that.
18:26
Speaker 2: So Portia, I went on, you know, submitted my resume,
18:30
Speaker 2: got a call a couple of days later, got hired
18:34
Speaker 2: in the interview, and when I got there, I was
18:41
Speaker 2: I was elated because I was able to help people
18:45
Speaker 2: that had mental illness, you know. And so I just
18:51
Speaker 2: resigned last Sunday. My last day was Thursday, because God
18:57
Speaker 2: wants me to move forward in the things that he
18:59
Speaker 2: needs me to really finish. And with that being said,
19:05
Speaker 2: every client that I encountered, I ensured that therapy, psychiatry,
19:18
Speaker 2: you know, because your psychiatrist is the one who prescribes
19:21
Speaker 2: your medication. I don't do medication, don't do no medication,
19:27
Speaker 2: but I set them up. I made sure of that.
19:31
Speaker 2: Like that was my ultimate goal. Like do you have
19:36
Speaker 2: a therapist? You know? If not, you have to get one.
19:40
Speaker 2: And so unbelievable, there's so many resources out here, Like
19:47
Speaker 2: I'm in Montgomery County, and I tell you it's something
19:52
Speaker 2: on not every corner, but in the surrounding areas. So
19:57
Speaker 2: many resources. And as long as you you have some
20:00
Speaker 2: health insurance, and if you don't go get you some medicaid,
20:04
Speaker 2: don't be too proud. Get it so that you can
20:07
Speaker 2: get the service, utilize the services that you need for
20:11
Speaker 2: your mental health. So many programs out here, So I
20:15
Speaker 2: would say, if you don't have a therapist, look into it.
20:19
Speaker 2: Even if you have these federal government help benefit plans,
20:24
Speaker 2: turn your card over. They have special departments for mental health.
20:30
Speaker 2: Call them. It's just as simple. And even if you
20:33
Speaker 2: need it for your spouse or your family, they allow
20:38
Speaker 2: sessions for that too. So and even now Portia I'm
20:43
Speaker 2: seeing on like on social media sites where they have
20:50
Speaker 2: these telehealth therapists, like you don't even have to leave
20:53
Speaker 2: out of your house. They accept all insurances. It's if
21:00
Speaker 2: you don't get therapy, you won't be healed. And if
21:04
Speaker 2: you don't get therapy, it's going to be because you
21:07
Speaker 2: didn't want it. You didn't want to be better, you
21:11
Speaker 2: don't want the truth, you don't want those matters to
21:15
Speaker 2: come off. Take the man. You know, God afforded me
21:18
Speaker 2: an opportunity to teach group. You know, at least every
21:22
Speaker 2: other day at least three times a week, and I
21:25
Speaker 2: felt so honored to do that. But I didn't play
21:27
Speaker 2: with it. You know. I looked up psycho social group studies.
21:35
Speaker 2: I would pull things out of books, and when we
21:38
Speaker 2: came to group, I ain't played with them. We're not
21:40
Speaker 2: getting ready. Put on teed talk Janine, get right talk
21:44
Speaker 2: from some real life experiences. And I'm telling you, they
21:48
Speaker 2: enjoyed my group. And guess what. Before a group I
21:52
Speaker 2: used to tell them, listen, I'm not the smartest one
21:54
Speaker 2: in the bunch, and when you are, you better find
21:57
Speaker 2: you another bunch. But I'm here to learn and grow
22:00
Speaker 2: from you all too. And so we just made it
22:03
Speaker 2: fun and I tell them and at the end of
22:06
Speaker 2: my group session, we would go around the room and
22:09
Speaker 2: they had to tell me one thing that they got
22:12
Speaker 2: out of group, and that that was the highlight of
22:16
Speaker 2: me going to work. It was so fulfilling, but just
22:20
Speaker 2: unfortunately it was time to go. It was time to go.
22:24
Speaker 2: So Porscha, the shift was get you a therapist, Okay.
22:30
Speaker 1: Get you ANOD and go on that pride. I mean,
22:32
Speaker 1: you brought it up. A lot of us have a
22:34
Speaker 1: ton of pride about asking for help utilizing resources because
22:41
Speaker 1: I mean you said it. There's therapy is everywhere. I mean,
22:43
Speaker 1: you can just do a Google search, right, and you've
22:45
Speaker 1: got nine eight eight. If you don't feel like calling
22:49
Speaker 1: nine of it, you can text seven four one seven
22:51
Speaker 1: four one, and I'm sure that they'll connect you with
22:54
Speaker 1: people you know in your area or virtually right, yes, yes, yes,
23:00
Speaker 1: you know. Janine for our audience, who's tuning in, I'm
23:03
Speaker 1: sure that there's people that are gonna want to connect
23:06
Speaker 1: with you and learn more about you. Please share with
23:10
Speaker 1: us how they can do that, whether it's a website
23:13
Speaker 1: or social media.
23:14
Speaker 2: Okay, so let me be clear, because I was all
23:17
Speaker 2: turned around the last I'm your man. Listen. Sometimes laugh
23:24
Speaker 2: at yourself, Okay, be real, laugh at yourself. That's healing.
23:28
Speaker 2: So okay, So you can reach me. My My phone
23:32
Speaker 2: number is area code two O two eight four seven
23:38
Speaker 2: nine to two zero. You can call her text. My
23:44
Speaker 2: website is www. Jones House, DC dot com. Okay, uh,
23:56
Speaker 2: and my email address is Jones House underscore seven three
24:04
Speaker 2: two at yahoo dot com.
24:07
Speaker 1: Excellent. Plose. So those of you who want to connect
24:09
Speaker 1: with Janine you can. And so Janine for our audience, also,
24:13
Speaker 1: who's tunnin? And like I mentioned in the beginning, you
24:15
Speaker 1: are the founder of Jones House of Refuge. Please share
24:19
Speaker 1: with us a little bit about that and if there's
24:21
Speaker 1: any upcoming events or how people can get involved with
24:26
Speaker 1: Jones House of Refuge.
24:28
Speaker 2: Okay, awesome. So Jones House of Refuge was a vision
24:32
Speaker 2: that God gave me around two thousand, around two thousand
24:37
Speaker 2: and so I really wasn't taking it serious, and I
24:42
Speaker 2: wrote it down. I always tell people I'm a big
24:45
Speaker 2: journaling girls, so I write stuff written down everywhere, and
24:50
Speaker 2: just you know, I just kept seeing it and I
24:52
Speaker 2: kept saying it. And then you know, God says and
24:55
Speaker 2: his word listen, if you don't let the the rocks cry.
25:00
Speaker 2: So if you're not going to do it, he'll pass
25:02
Speaker 2: the baton. He will, And so I didn't want that
25:05
Speaker 2: opportunity to pass. So, you know, fast forward, I got
25:10
Speaker 2: the five oh one c three established and I did
25:14
Speaker 2: everything that I needed to do, logo, all that stuff,
25:17
Speaker 2: business plan everything. So I got Jones House going. And
25:24
Speaker 2: so it's a transitional home for women for one woman
25:30
Speaker 2: with one child. We know women have a lot of children,
25:35
Speaker 2: but when you got five and six and seven or more,
25:39
Speaker 2: no shade my program probably wouldn't benefit you, because I
25:45
Speaker 2: have designed like a rigorous training program to give them
25:51
Speaker 2: the twols, the tip tips and the education that they
25:54
Speaker 2: need to get started and to have a better quality
25:58
Speaker 2: of life from resume writing and entrepreneurship and how to
26:06
Speaker 2: you know, establish a bank account and maintain you know,
26:09
Speaker 2: your funds. Just touching on a little bit of everything.
26:13
Speaker 2: Financial literacy, raising your children, it's another one. It's so many,
26:23
Speaker 2: so many if you can go to the website and
26:25
Speaker 2: read about it, but just trying to give them some
26:30
Speaker 2: some skill sets that would help them be better in life.
26:36
Speaker 2: And the program initially was going to run eighteen months,
26:39
Speaker 2: but I realized that that's too long because the goal
26:43
Speaker 2: is to get them in service them, not service them,
26:48
Speaker 2: but serve them and then allow other people to come
26:54
Speaker 2: in and get that same opportunity. So eight months, I really,
26:57
Speaker 2: I mean eighteen months. I realized that was too long.
27:00
Speaker 2: And I learned that from working where I just resigned from.
27:03
Speaker 2: You know, no, it's a ten day program. You got
27:06
Speaker 2: to get in, get it and get on out of here,
27:08
Speaker 2: you know, and allow other people to get that opportunity
27:12
Speaker 2: as well. So right now, some of the doors, the
27:17
Speaker 2: doors are not open but we're looking for a funding,
27:20
Speaker 2: We're looking for grant writers, We're looking for all of
27:23
Speaker 2: that to get started to get these doors open. My
27:29
Speaker 2: goal is to have like an apartment building where they
27:34
Speaker 2: can have their own apartment and manage their children, my children,
27:40
Speaker 2: their child be able to study. I had a vision
27:45
Speaker 2: where I wanted to have some desks built into the wall,
27:50
Speaker 2: so that you know those back in the day. I
27:52
Speaker 2: don't know what you call them, but you pull it down.
27:54
Speaker 2: It's in the wall. It's like those beds that's in
27:57
Speaker 2: the wall. But anyway that exactary, yes, And so that
28:03
Speaker 2: they can learn how to write a letter, respond to someone,
28:10
Speaker 2: how to handle business over the phone. I used to
28:15
Speaker 2: tell the clients at the center, don't go to no
28:18
Speaker 2: phone making, no business calling. You don't have pen and paper.
28:23
Speaker 2: How you gonna remember who you talk to and what
28:25
Speaker 2: time you talk to them if you need to call
28:27
Speaker 2: that back. So it's just so many things I have
28:31
Speaker 2: in store for them. And right now, because the doors
28:35
Speaker 2: are not open, and I'm feeling a whole lot better,
28:39
Speaker 2: we Jones House is embarking on a book bag drive
28:44
Speaker 2: and so we're going back in the community where my
28:47
Speaker 2: son went to elementary school and they were so happy,
28:52
Speaker 2: So open house on the nineteenth and the twentieth of August.
28:57
Speaker 2: I'll be presenting book bags to you know, that school
29:04
Speaker 2: that my son went to, and so if anyone is
29:07
Speaker 2: interested in donating book bags and supplies, and these are
29:12
Speaker 2: for primary grades, so we don't have to worry about
29:15
Speaker 2: calculators and a whole laptop and all those things, right,
29:19
Speaker 2: we just need some fifty cent crayons from the Walmart
29:23
Speaker 2: and composition notebooks and pencils and things like that, hand
29:28
Speaker 2: sanitized and tissues. So yeah, I'm putting out a flyer
29:36
Speaker 2: this week for that, but feel free to call me
29:39
Speaker 2: if you want to make a donation or you know,
29:43
Speaker 2: go to the website. We haven't put the fly on
29:45
Speaker 2: there just yet, but it will be coming up this week.
29:49
Speaker 2: So that's what we got going on for right now.
29:51
Speaker 2: And then the later months October, November, and December, we're
29:54
Speaker 2: definitely going to do something for Thanksgiving, Christmas and breast
29:59
Speaker 2: cancer awareness in.
30:00
Speaker 1: October excellent for our audience, definitely. If you want to
30:06
Speaker 1: get a hold of Janine support Jones' house of refuge
30:10
Speaker 1: the children that are going back to school, you can
30:13
Speaker 1: call her and We'll also have the phone number and
30:17
Speaker 1: email and website in the show notes so people can
30:20
Speaker 1: connect with you Janine. Well, everybody that was miss Janine
30:25
Speaker 1: Powrey that you heard from. And that concludes another episode
30:30
Speaker 1: here and everybody, don't forget I'll see you next time
30:33
Speaker 1: in piece and Har, Greece.
30:34
Speaker 2: Everyone, Yes, bye, thank you, Poorsche