Tawny achieves recovery at Avivo and moves into permanent housing with children

Tawny is an overcomer. She has experienced and overcome trauma like few could imagine. A mother of four, Tawny was reunited with her children while completing Avivo’s family recovery program.

Growing up, Tawny shares, her parents were heavy drinkers, and her father often had trouble with the law. Each time he went to jail or faced some other hardship, their family would move somewhere new.

“My parents moved us around quite a bit. We stayed in a lot of motel rooms,” shares Tawny. “They were really heavy alcoholics.”

“My parents moved us around quite a bit. We stayed in a lot of motel rooms … They were really heavy alcoholics.”

At just 13 years old, Tawny experienced a nightmarish incident. At that age she didn’t think anything  bad could happen to her.

She’d been asked out to a movie by a boy from school. While on the date, the boy convinced her to enter his house, where he held her against her will for days.

“I didn’t know that [when I went into his house it] was going to be the last time I was going to see outside for a while. I woke up a few days later, and I just had flashbacks of things – awful things – that had happened… When he finally decided to bring me home, he drove me back to my house and just pushed me out of the car.”

According to Tawny, her parents’ drinking escalated and she moved in with other relatives for more stability. Her first experience with drugs was with an older boyfriend, who himself was only 18.

She attempted to earn her GED to advance her education, but only made it four months before being sidelined by her drug use.

A painful cycle started that lasted for years: brief sobriety, relapses, and jail time. When she was living on the streets, Tawny connected with Avivo. She was seven and a half months pregnant.

“That [moment] was when I needed Avivo the most, and they definitely helped me through it … They give you housing… and then you go to your programs, and you have daycare while you’re in your programs. That’s a big thing.”

“That [moment] was when I needed Avivo the most, and they definitely helped me through it,” shares Tawny. “They give you housing… and then you go to your programs, and you have daycare while you’re in your programs. That’s a big thing.”

Tawny is thankful for the stability that Avivo’s recovery housing provided her, and the stability it provided for her to regain custody of her kids. Now that Tawny has reached recovery and found housing for her young family, she’s starting to think of next steps and the future, including career education and job training.

“I just want to be in a stable place, and create a life that I enjoy living, and for my kids to be able to trust me and know that I’m here to stay.”