{"id":150,"date":"2026-04-16T15:17:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/?p=150"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:17:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:17:43","slug":"fresh-start-a-safe-haven-for-mom-3-kids-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/?p=150","title":{"rendered":"FRESH Start a safe haven for mom, 3 kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Five-year-old Aiden spent two months at FRESH Start with his mother, Desirae, and brothers, Jace, 2, and Joel, 1. They were discharged from the shelter and resource center last week and will celebrate Christmas in their new home in Lancaster.<\/div> <\/div><\/div>

\u200b<\/font>As 5-year-old Aiden and 2-year-old Jace watched “The Grinch,” their 1-year-old brother, Joel, slept in the playroom at FRESH Start\u2019s resource center at Lebanon County Christian Ministries.It was discharge day \u2013 one week before Christmas – at the place they called home for more than two months.Their mother, Desirae, moved to Lebanon from Lancaster with the kids earlier this year to stay at a friend\u2019s apartment. Her friend, however, was soon evicted, leaving Desirae scrambling to find somewhere safe to live with her children.\u201cIt was stressful \u2013 it was sad,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what I was going to do.\u201dShe had a heartbreaking thought \u2013 would she have to take a drastic step and put her kids in temporary foster care until she could find a place to stay?A family member told her not to entertain the idea.\u200bBut time was ticking.<\/font><\/h2>
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\u201cI have depression, so it made it worse \u2013 it was really coming down on me,\u201d she said.That weekend, she found out about FRESH Start Emergency Shelter and Resource Center. After speaking to FRESH Start staff, the intake process went quickly and she and her children were able to get into the shelter that day.\u201cIt took a lot of stress off of me and the kids,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a safe haven for a lot of families and people who need it.\u201dNow safe, Desirae could spend her energy outlining goals with the assistance from staff to get her back on her feet. Instead of worrying about where she was going to live, she found part-time work, applied for food stamps and WIC and obtained day care for her children.Meanwhile, her children made friends with the other children in the shelter, played with toys in the playroom at the resource center and had fun making crafts with staff.\u00a0Desirae and her children moved back to Lancaster that day to live with her mother, who recently secured stable housing.\u201cIt just worked out \u2013 things are definitely going to get better, I think,\u201d she said.\u200bHer next step is to apply for jobs in the Lancaster area and obtain her driver\u2019s license.\u200bFor now, she is grateful that her children will be home for Christmas, watching her children open presents from a generous family that adopted her own for the holiday.<\/font><\/h2>
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Written by Andrea Gillhoolley, development manager, Lebanon County Christian Ministries. Contact her at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or call (717) 272 4400 ext. 211 to find out how you can become a supporter of LCCM to help change lives in Lebanon County.\u00a0<\/em>\u200b<\/div>
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Partner with LCC<\/span>M by joining our\u00a0<\/span>Love\u00a0Your Neighbor\u00a0<\/a>campaign.\u00a0 Monthly contributions provide LCCM stable funding year round to help thousands of people like Natalie each year.\u00a0<\/span>\u200b<\/font><\/div>
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Jace, 2, spent two months at FRESH Start with his mother, Desirae, and brothers, Aiden, 5, and Joel, 1. <\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five-year-old Aiden spent two months at FRESH Start with his mother, Desirae, and brothers, Jace, 2, and Joel, 1. They were discharged from the shelter and resource center last week and will celebrate Christmas in their new home in Lancaster. \u200bAs 5-year-old Aiden and 2-year-old Jace watched “The Grinch,” their 1-year-old brother, Joel, slept in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heuristic-yonath.40-160-33-16.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}