Damaris Finds and Shares Hope

Damaris remembers the degradation she experienced on the streets of Ft. Lauderdale when she was a 15-year-old runaway. At a particularly low point, she remembered an ad for Nineline — 1-800-999-9999 — Covenant House’s national toll-free hotline for kids and parents. A Covenant House Florida outreach counselor responded to her call by coming to pick her up and bring her to Covenant House’s crisis shelter where she received immediate care and counseling toward family reunification. With Covenant House Florida’s help, Damaris returned home to her parents and went on to earn her high school equivalency and a college degree. Now a controller at an internet marketing company, she’s not only a donor to Covenant House Florida, she also volunteers one night a week offering spiritual ministry to girls in the shelter.

“I found myself stuck and didn’t know how to get out...,” she said. “Now I reach people with the message that you don’t have to be stuck in a dead end life. The kids think, ‘If you can do it, maybe there’s hope for me.’”