Tales Craft Hope From Despair
10 Homeless Teen-Agers Share Their Experiences
For the first time they shared their stories.
Ten homeless girls got on stage and bared their souls to an audience of friends and strangers.
They cried during a half-hour performance of For Days and Days, which they created to help them recover their lives and make positive decisions about the future... They took turns telling of parents who left them..., the drugs and alcohol that provided an escape and the police who caught them.
The girls worked on the project for two weeks in July with Rasheryl McCreary [Executive Director of The Living Legacy Project, Inc.],… through the Safe Landing Youth Shelter and Shelter Care Inc.
McCreary said the Living Legacy Project – the model for the performances she puts together - is about helping teens make better choices. “I told them that they are living their legacy right now, whatever they choose to do... I think exploring the past catapults each participant into actively contemplating the lives they want to lead and the legacies they want to leave behind.”
Student Comments
“The worst thing I ever did was getting into drugs. But working with the [Living Legacy Project] group “is one of the good things I accomplished by my own choice”.
“[G]oing to Safe Landing and participating in the [Living Legacy] program saved [my] life.”
“I learned that no matter what it is, if I put my mind to it, I
can do it. I can stay on the right track.”
Kimberly Melton, Beacon Journal staff writer
(excerpts from The Beacon Journal Article printed 8/3/03)