VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

De’Niece:
True poverty is defined as being unloved, unwanted, uncared for. When I looked to Shepherd, I had to own it. I was living in poverty. Before, I wouldn’t have said I was living in poverty. The reality is I was.

De’Niece:
Growing up, it was just me, my mom, my brother and my sister. Things started to fall apart, maybe when I was about four or five. That’s when my dad left my mom and my mom was forced to pay the bills and to manage us by herself. We were never in a stable place. We were in and out of homeless shelters.

Scott Davison:
Well, it’s a hard story. As a parent, you’re just horrified and your heart goes out to her in terms of some of the hard things she had to endure.

De’Niece:
The lady she met at the bus stop, her name was Barbara. She lived maybe two apartment complexes over. Then my mom lost her apartment, so we all ended up moving into Barbara’s one bedroom apartment.

Colby Grindean:
I don’t think we really realized the physical abuse that was going on and the emotional, until she brought it up. I don’t think we ever really realized really how rough it was at home.

De’Niece:
Barbara was in my life from when I was five to when I was 14. Nine years of being abused. After Barbara passed away, I knew I needed to cleanse my heart from the hatred, that had overcome it.

De’Niece:
I had never been in an afterschool program, so Shepherd was my first thing. I was just really excited to not be at home during those times.

Colby Grindean:
Her and her sister were the ones coming to the after school program first. Then her older brother eventually came later. That’s really, I think, where we started to create some bonding with the whole family.

De’Niece:
I was exposed to so much good things going to Shepherd. They cared about me. They cared about my family. They cared about where I’ve been. They cared about where I was going.

Scott Davison:
People don’t care what you know, until they know how much you care. Shepherd cares.

Colby Grindean:
Very quickly, kids figure out where they’re really loved, who really loves you.

De’Niece:
Shepherd opened my eyes to a bunch of different colleges. We had college visits every Tuesday and Thursday.

Scott Davison:
For De’Niece, we’re grateful that she chose us. She’s a great associate. She’s very good at her job. She works hard. Again, she’s a reminder of what’s possible and perhaps what we’ve been missing.

Colby Grindean:
She’s always overcome. She’s always worked through.

De’Niece:
These days, I just… It’s important to me to forgive people. God gives us grace. We should give each other grace.

Scott Davison:
There’s a huge opportunity for all of us in this community. If you take Shepherd’s focus, its values, its faith orientation, you combine that with people who are crying out in need, and then you can combine that with companies that see an opportunity, we could change the city.