At seven years old, Sammy did what no child should ever be forced to do…he grabbed a knife from the kitchen to protect his mother from yet another episode of violence in her home.  Lakisha knew it was time for change.  This is her story.

Lakisha was 27 years old when she took her two children, ages one and seven, along with what she could carry, and left her home, the scene of a continuous cycle of domestic violence. She received three bus tickets from the police in New England.  She chose to return to Virginia to try to begin her life once again.

Starting over wasn’t going to be easy for Lakisha.  Her childhood had been no childhood at all…both of her parents were incarcerated and her home lacked even the basics most people take for granted.  There was little routine and only a small sense of “family.”  There was, however, significant violence in her childhood home.  This was what Lakisha grew up to know as “normal.”  How does one start over from this beginning?

Lakisha and her children stayed with a friend for a brief time when they arrived in Virginia.  Later they found a refuge in a Richmond shelter where they first met staff from CHIP.  This was the beginning of a two year relationship designed to help Lakisha begin again in a healthy way, despite her troubled past.

Both children were “Moderate Persistent Asthmatic” with continual respiratory distresses.  The CHIP team acted quickly to assist the family in enrolling in Medicaid, utilizing CHIP’s vans to transport the family to consultations with a physician.  They assisted in assuring that the children’s vaccinations were brought up to date as they were significantly behind.  The CHIP team engaged in ongoing coaching and contact was determined that this family would not “fall through the cracks.” Before long, Lakisha and her children relocated to a transitional housing program with the help of the CHIP staff.  There they would be more independent and have access to important, life-changing resources such as counseling and child care, conditional upon Lakisha successfully seeking and maintaining employment.

The CHIP professionals began to work with Lakisha on how to better manage her children’s asthma…how to identify asthma triggers and the role cleanliness plays in minimizing the asthma.  Implementing these new understandings, along with medication, helped treat the children’s various skin disorders that had arisen due to their past environment.  Gradually, Lakisha began to integrate what she was learning from the CHIP staff and implemented changes for her family.

Lakisha is now 29 years old.  She is working as a Certified Nurse’s Assistant at a local hospital, and is seeking her certification as a Phlebotomist.  She attends community college part-time.  She pays all her own rent, is current on her bills and is saving for her first car.  She has cared dearly for her children, implementing changes to help control their asthma and providing a quality of home life for them that she herself never knew.

Lakisha has invested herself in her children’s education by setting aside time to read to them as they participated in CHIP’s “Raising A Reader” program.  The children have now completed the program and have library cards of their own.  Her older son’s grades have improved and with help, his anger and aggression have waned, though they remain a constant reminder of the trauma and abuse the family had the courage to escape.  Lakisha has not forgotten her past and has become an effective public advocate for women facing domestic violence, having been featured on TV and in the local newspaper.  Lakisha and her family are testament to the reality that with assistance, such as is provided by CHIP, lives can change for the better.