New Beginnings | Joyce’s Story
To hear Joyce sharing her story, click the play button above.
As spring transitions to summer, we find ourselves reflecting on the beauty and power of new beginnings. For decades CAP and Our House has served the HIV/AIDS community, expanding and deepening care into seven locations in Portland and SW Washington. And every day, we witness new beginnings and a fresh start for our clients. Our existing clients are reaching their greatest personal levels of independence, health, and support, receiving a truly full continuum of care: prevention, diagnosis, end of life care, and everything in between. For new clients, we’ve streamlined our intake process to ensure ease of access to the abundance of services we provide. Yes, CAP and Our House services are life-saving and life-changing, but our people - the community and peer support our clients receive and offer to one another – is what makes our community a special place of belonging.
Joyce receiving a standing ovation at the 2022 CAP + Our House Art Auction & After Party. Photo courtesy of Kim Karu
Joyce is one such client that found a fresh start and a sense of belonging in our community. Joyce is a self-proclaimed fighter who, after overcoming physical and sexual abuse as a child, became a loving mother of four children who were tragically taken from her in 2006 for a crime she did not commit. The grief of losing her family led to significant mental health struggles, suicide attempts, and ultimately substance use to numb her deep pain. Being the fighter she is, she chose and completed a substance use disorder program and was attempting a better path forward when in 2008 she was diagnosed with HIV. She lived with HIV, battled her mental health and life difficulties for many years before finding Our House in 2020: after being struck by a car walking across a crosswalk she was hospitalized and transferred to a rehabilitation hospital to heal her physical injuries, but neither place was equipped or willing to help Joyce with her depression or HIV symptoms. Joyce again relied on her resourcefulness and inner strength and contacted Our House and enrolled in our residential program. During her time at Our House, Joyce showed her natural nurturing instincts, supporting and cheerleading other residents. She was a role model to those with whom she lived, showing them how to overcome challenges to live their best lives.
Joyce standing triumphantly at the 2022 CAP + Our House Art Auction & After Party.
Photo courtesy of Kim Karu
Today, Joyce is an active member of our HIV community, has achieved independent living with the help of CAP housing services, is an active member of our Aging Well program (a group that seeks to support the well-being of aging adults living with HIV), and feels very secure with the mental health and medical services she receives. CAP’s Aging Well program has been instrumental to Joyce achieving a true sense of belonging, and her friends within this group are a major part of the large support system she has built within our community:
“I don’t feel like I’m fighting by myself, I feel like I have people fighting with me, this is my family.”
We thank you for your ongoing support of our clients like Joyce, and for being such a vital part of our community. Please join us in helping even more individuals living with HIV make a fresh start.
Will you make a recurring monthly donation or a one-time gift? Any amount that is meaningful to you will support the many programs of CAP and Our House and create a direct and lifelong impact on the people we serve.
With Deep Gratitude,
Jessy Baros Friedt, Chief Development Officer
Dana Kinney, Director of Development
