NEW honored Cheryl Monroe with the NEW Light Alumna Award at this year’s Moving Out of Homelessness Auction and Fundraiser at Jackie Bistro.
Cheryl Monroe started doing drugs at 16 in order to fit in. “My mom was protective and I always wanted to hang with the cool kids down the street doing drugs,” she said. She dropped out of school and despite her addiction was able to become a stenographer. “I was able to smoke and work and I thought I was ok,” she said. But as time went on, her drug use got worse and she started using harder drugs more often. “Things spiraled out of control,” she said.
After completing a recovery program, Cheryl came to NEW where she found community and support. “I was very comfortable at NEW,” she said. “It was all about support.” Cheryl especially appreciated NEW’s morning meetings that “gave her the courage to get back up and face life on my terms.” At NEW she started looking around to see what could be next for her. “I was pretty lost but at NEW, I was able to hang on to the basic simple things, like shelter and food. I could learn to listen when people gave me advice.”
Cheryl relapsed again, but a judge convinced her to get sober. And she did. Today she works as a case manager for a federal agency, the same agency that helped her change the course of her life so long ago. She has been a mental health specialist for 13 years and recently completed her Master’s degree in Program Management from Trinity University.
“I love what I do,” she said. “I try to be supportive and prevent my clients from making some of the errors I made. They can tell I have a passion for what I do because I know that had it not been for NEW and others stepping in and helping me make better decisions, I don’t know where I would be today.”