Just try telling Tameika Hughes that she doesn’t understand what you’re going through – she knows because she’s been there. Although she now serves as family support specialist and house supervisor, it wasn’t that long ago when she was a resident at Freedom House; a single mother of five who was getting out from abusive relationships and concerned about where her kids were heading.

That was in July of 2004 when she left everything she knew because she didn’t want her kids to have the kind of life she had. There weren’t any positive role models because everyone around her was either on drugs or alcohol, and her oldest son was starting to get into trouble. That’s when she knew she needed help and she found it at Freedom House through its Life Skills Program. She graduated, found permanent housing and was hired as a house supervisor. Then she was promoted to case manager, a position she held for 2 1/2 years and now she’s breaking new ground as family support specialist. In that role, she takes care of the basic daily needs of the families in house. If they have issues, she helps resolve those problems. She also conducts the pre-intake screening with families when they first come in, goes over all the rules, takes them on a tour, gets them settled into their room and makes sure everybody is comfortable and on the same page. She’s become the model of how strong families operate and who better to do that than someone who’s walked in their shoes?

“I’ve heard them say, you don’t have kids or you don’t realize what it’s like to live in Freedom House, and I say, ‘well yeah, I do realize, let me tell you about it.’ And that is really just to say to them, you can do it too, to give them hope, encourage them and make them believe they can overcome as well,” she explained.