Former Huckleberry House Client - Jennifer

(Pictured: Former Huckleberry House client, Jennifer (second from left) with her children Alex, Chiara, and Amber.

At fifteen, Jennifer had been in Juvenile Hall, a foster home, and living with different relatives while her parents were both struggling with addiction. She was experiencing a lot of physical and emotional abuse in her life, and she candidly shares, "I was born to teen parents, and they weren't given the tools to be parents." In the summer of 1986, after running away from home, Jennifer ended up at Huckleberry House."

"I have strong memories of being at Huckleberry House," she says. While there, Jennifer received reproductive health services at the clinic in the shelter's basement (what would later become Huckleberry Cole Street Clinic). "The staff at Huckleberry House sat me down and explained why women need to have these exams. No one in my life had ever told that they were important."

While at Hucklebery House, Jennifer was also shown a documentary film called StreetWise, about young runaways in Seattle. "That movie really resonated with me. It struck me because I remember thinking, 'I don't want to be this way'." At nineteen she found herself, "repeating a lot of my parents' mistakes," and decided to make a change in her life.

Today, Jennifer is the mother of three and she says, "I went out and bought a copy of StreetWise and showed it to my own kids." She also actively volunteers with young people in the community because, "I want to break the cycle of violence and abuse in my family and other families."