Hi.

My name is Tonia. I'm from Madison, WI. I moved to Milwaukee a year and a half ago to get better in all ways of my life. I have 3 grown children that I left behind so I could heal from within. They may be grown, but it was hard on all of us. I came to Milwaukee for substance and mental health treatment. I have to say, I feel great compared to how I felt 2 years ago. I'm 18 months sober. I work on it every day, along with my mental health. I've done just about every program you can think of to learn a new me, to rebuild not just my life but my relationship with my children. We used to be super close, and I took that from them during my using years. But we have been rebuilding our relationships, and I'm absolutely grateful that they wanted to work on it as well. I'm a very lucky mom!

But the universe decided to put a lot of weight on my shoulders again, to see how much more I can take, if it can break me, or show me where I am at in life is for a reason. And where that is, I lost my sober living house. I just trusted the wrong kind of people. Another lesson learned. But now I've been living at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission/Joy House for women. I've been here for 3 months. Please don't get me wrong, I'm extremely grateful I have a roof over my head, but it is a very hard place to be. It's a shelter but with some opportunities. But it has been really hard to get a job due to scheduling, the curfew, and other rules. It's a very strict environment, very stressful, and mentally challenging at times. There is supposed to be all this help like getting into our own places and housing certificates, which I can't get anyone to talk to me about and apply for. I'm very independent and have always advocated for myself. I do everything that is needed to do in life, whether it's employment, finding a job, or finding treatments and sober livings. Whatever I've needed in my life, I've done it on my own. I have signed up with different programs such as DVR, and the list goes on. The DVR is waiting on their funding to hopefully help me with a grant to just get into my own place.

Being at Joy House is going to be very difficult for me extremely soon. As soon as June 12th, I'm having surgery done on my bottom jaw. Teeth have already been removed, but the crappy dental place I went to ruined some of my bottom jaw. So my new dentist is cutting my whole jaw open to fix what the other dentist did. That's just one of the surgeries and procedures I'm getting done this summer. I have surgery on my GI tract, more than likely surgery on my right foot because I have a severe bunion. And with all of that, I have other physical ailments, which will make everything heal slower and harder. Also, being at Joy House will make it almost impossible to heal and rest as I should because we are woken up at 5 am every day, even the children. We are not allowed to take naps or rest when we are sick, which I'm sick as I type this. We can't even lay down on a couch when we are sick or in pain. I just got my gallbladder taken out 5 weeks ago, and I was not allowed to lay and rest. They did not follow the restrictions that I had when I came back. I also have arthritis in my knees and back. I also have sciatica in my back, fibromyalgia, and neuropathy. All of those make my day-to-day life really hard. But also having those issues takes my body three times as long to heal as it does anybody else. So all of that on top of being here, I do not know how I'm going to heal and get through this summer if I had to stay here all summer.

I'm trying to save a little bit of money. I don't have much. I'm not getting help from anywhere. So I'm just asking if anyone that reads this would be so gracious to donate whatever they can, even if it's just $1. I want to hopefully get into my own apartment/studio ASAP. I know there are a bunch of places available, and I can afford it; I just need help getting into it. I also need to get the bare minimum accessories for my place. My goal is $2000. I literally have never in my life asked for help like this, and whatever help I do get, it will be a wonderful, amazing gift.

Thank you.