TAMPA, Fla. — Juanita Moore's life hasn't been easy. But walking through the doors at the University Area CDC put her life on a different path.
"I was laughing earlier from when I first walked through these doors and to now to actually be doing an interview. It's amazing," she said.
Her journey over the last three months is worth talking about.
"When I first came in, I felt so dehumanized. And they reached their hands out to me to help a sister up. They wear their crowns well. My crown was tilted when I first came in this program, and they helped me to put my crown on back straight," she said.
The crown-wielding queens at Moore's side: the women at the University Area CDC.
"Coming here, the ladies, the staff, they made me feel human again. They didn't dehumanize me or use my past against me," Moore said.
A team that was eager to help Moore straighten out her life.
"I had come out of (an) abusive relationship, addiction. I'm a victim, I was a victim as well as a survivor of human sex trafficking, and homeless, I had lost everything,"
Moore was in a dark place at the time.
"I felt I was useless. I was hopeless. I had no life. I had no one that cared. I was suicidal. I had suicidal thoughts, and I just felt no one would even miss me. And being here at the University Area CDC at the Steps for Success Program, they gave me all that back. They helped me to find Juanita," she added.
Since joining their Steps for Success program, she's found an apartment, a job at Cracker Barrel, and a new sense of self.
"I had come from a 35-year addiction. I'm 10 months clean. I'm so happy about that. And I'm also enrolled in a GED program here. I will have my GED in a month or so. And I will be expanding my education (by) looking into photojournalism," she proudly proclaimed.
Throughout the journey, walking into a new life, Kayla Barron has been right there in lockstep for Moore.
"I've seen so much growth. Whenever she came, she was a little broken. But she knew where she wanted to go, the direction she wanted to head in, and it was over from there," Barron explained.
Barron is what the program calls a "navigator." The navigator is similar to a personal social worker. Through one-on-one meetings, the navigator talks about setting and then reaching individual goals.
"We started as strangers, and now we're family," Moore said.
The navigators are there for any and all kinds of assistance, such as employment, housing, schooling, financial planning, and everything in between.
"I forgot about Juanita along the way. And that's what they have given me back: my self-esteem, my self-respect. And so I love what I see in the mirror," Moore said.
The program has helped hundreds of others find themselves over the last couple of years.
Juanita Moore believes the benefits of the program aren't just for her.
"I have seven children and seven grandbabies. And I have to be an example for them. But I have to be an example for Juanita first in order for them to just see no matter the mistakes, you get back up, you hold yourself. Keep God first. Every day is a struggle in a sense. But everything that I've been through. I'm not worried about this. I got it," she said.
Her goal now, aside from becoming a photojournalist, is to inspire many others in situations she was in not too long ago.
"I always just ask God to use me to help someone else. And I just look at my mess. What I used to call my life is really God turned it into a powerful testimony. So, everything I went through, I'm accepting of it. And it just gives me more power and more strength to just be better. And to reach my hand out and freely give back what was so freely given to me," she added.
Because life's not about where you've been, it's all about where you're going.
If you or someone you know could benefit from the Steps for Success program, you can go here to get more information.
