Last week, we celebrated our Project Comeback Graduation. Graduates, their proud friends and family, current program participants, and ACE staff gathered at the Joyce Theater to celebrate. The afternoon was, as always, filled with incredible stories of the men and women who, with ACE’s help, have left homelessness behind.
Kim told the audience about the importance of trust: “Steve said something to me one day when I first started: he said ‘I trust you.’ Trust?! My name and the word ‘trust’ do not go hand in hand. No one had ever trusted me before, and so I thought maybe I’m not such a bad person after all. And it was because of the motivation of the staff that I was able to keep going on.”
Navy veteran Mark spoke of his appreciation of ACE’s opportunities: “I had a rough life coming up, and growing up the way I did, my attitude was very negative. It takes me a while to get along with people, since I’ve never had a lot of trust in my life. I’d like to thank ACE for really being there. There are not a lot of places who would open their doors for me, especially when they start doing criminal background checks. But being a military vet, one thing you know is that failure is not an option. I fall down, I get back up. Maybe when I get up it’s not in the right direction, but there’s where ACE comes in, to give me the right direction. I’d like to thank all the staff for giving me that push.”