Danielle's Story: Child of Hope

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Danielle* was a child with adult-sized problems. Instead of worrying about doing well in school, keeping up with the latest fashion trends, and when she’d hang out with her friends, Danielle’s life flowed from one crisis to another. Her mother had gone to prison on drug charges, leaving her in the care of an older brother and his girlfriend whose own lives were, to put it mildly, chaotic.

Perhaps it was those adult-sized problems that drew Danielle to join Safe Horizon’s school program. She sat through an introduction to our Margaret’s Place program, and then became part of our Girl’s Group. Danielle was usually the first to come to the meetings, but she hardly talked, especially about her own life. Any information we learned about Danielle came to us from her friends, or from others in the group she spoke to.

Danielle’s teacher also helped Safe Horizon’s counselors gain insight on Danielle’s situation. Since we knew Danielle was reluctant to speak in front of the group about her life, we instead offered chances for her to speak about any issues that worried her in private. Danielle still did not want to talk about what she was going through, though after the Girl’s Group ended, she continued to drop by our counselor’s office to talk about how much she missed the other people and the sessions.

Shortly afterward, we learned Danielle faced a new and troubling situation. Danielle’s boyfriend was abusing her, and his best friend approached Safe Horizon’s social worker to tell her about the abuse.

The best friend wanted to help Danielle, and so did we. We had to reach out to Danielle as soon as possible, so our social worker arranged a session with her. Danielle brought a friend along for support.

We’d left out flyers and brochures about relationship abuse. When Danielle came in, she saw the materials, and as our session progressed, she began to open up about the problems with her boyfriend. While she stopped short of admitting her boyfriend was abusing her, we kept talking to her with her friend’s help, and helped her recognize red flags in her relationships as well as work out a safety plan. Our counselor continues to work with Danielle today.

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