Minely had to reset her life and, through Seacoast Family Promise, found a new purpose.
Minely knew she had to go. She was living in Massachusetts, but the timer was counting down. Trapped in the middle of a domestic violence situation, she had to find a way out– for her sake and the sake of her children. But her options were limited.
Things spiraled out of control when Minely was seriously injured, couldn’t get to work anymore, and fell immediately behind her bills. Shortly after, she lost her apartment. Her escape hatch from this brutal situation lay across the northern border.
“I didn’t want to stay in Massachusetts,” she says, “so I ended up coming to New Hampshire. I had heard about Seacoast Family Promise from a friend who had gone through the program. It just so happened Miss Pati had a place for me at the time.”
So, it was in 2016 when Minely brought her two young girls to the doorstep of Seacoast Family Promise to meet Executive Director Pati Frew-Waters.
Minely needed a safe place for her family, but at the same time, she wanted to maintain as much normalcy as possible for her children. That meant keeping them in their old school, even if it led to seemingly endless commutes.
Minely needed a safe place for her family, but at the same time, she wanted to maintain as much normalcy as possible for her children.
Meanwhile, this had been the first time in a while that Minely didn’t have a job – a state of being she found alien and completely unwanted.
“I've always had a professional job,” she says. “I've always worked. I was a deputy tax collector in Massachusetts.”
It was the lowest point of her life, and she didn’t know what direction she was heading. But she was persistent. She healed, she learned, she worked with Seacoast Family Promise staff, and she patiently and methodically rebuilt stability.
“I eventually found a place to live and started over,” she says.
That place? Nashua. Close enough to her family in Massachusetts, but far enough to build a new life away from the specter of her former trauma. Even better? Her new career, which allows her to put her tough past experiences to good use.
“I’m a case manager for Family Promise in Nashua,” she says. “I work with the residents. I won’t say it’s easy, but I feel like I can understand where they're coming from because I've been there.”