Denise is now receiving around-the-clock care to help her feel safe again.
When 18-year-old Denise made the decision to end her life by walking with her eyes closed onto a very busy interstate – an 18-wheeler miraculously missing her by inches – she felt like the most all-alone-kid in the world.
"No one cared if I lived or died, and neither did I," she says.
Of all the kids who have found their way to our Covenant House doors, Denise may have had the toughest journey. When we learned more about her past, it became clear why this beautiful young girl tried to end her life in such a violent way.
At the age of 5, she was sold off by her mom to a drug dealer as payment. It was during that time Denise remembers being molested repeatedly.
"After the dealer used me up, my mother took me back," she said. "But it didn't get any better at home."
Denise was sexually and physically assaulted by her mother’s pimps and boyfriends. "I remember one particular time I tried to stand up to my mother, and she burned me on my leg with an iron as punishment," she told us.
Finally, she was saved by a school teacher who noticed the bruises all over her body. She was removed from her mother's care and lived in and out of foster homes until she turned 18.
She came to Covenant House after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital following her suicide attempt. She is in our crisis care unit, and having a hard time trusting and believing in herself. Our counselors have been working around the clock with her. And just the other day she told us she feels safe with us.
"I feel that people actually care about me here and don't want anything from me," she says. For Denise, and for us, that’s a major breakthrough.
We have a lot of work to do with Denise, and the other 1,700 kids in our care tonight. So many of our kids have been faced with severe violence in their homes or on the streets. Most not only lack any family ties, but any significant relationship to any caring adult, to any neighborhood, to any nurturing school system.
But given the love and support all kids need and deserve, kids like Denise not only survive, they thrive.
The names and faces of some of our kids have been changed to protect their identities.