{"id":11682,"date":"2024-11-01T00:39:50","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T04:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/?p=11682"},"modified":"2025-05-22T11:17:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T15:17:40","slug":"ruths-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/stories\/ruths-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruth&#8217;s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"970\" src=\"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-1024x970.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10951\" srcset=\"https:\/\/safehorizon.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-1024x970.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/safehorizon.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-300x284.jpg 300w, https:\/\/safehorizon.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-768x727.jpg 768w, https:\/\/safehorizon.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-1536x1455.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/safehorizon.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1.jpg 1913w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>At just 13-years-old, Ruth felt safer living on the streets than at home. When Ruth told her family that she was abused, they did not believe her. Instead of supporting her, they punished her. So, at just 13-years-old, Ruth left home. She met a community of people that made her feel safer living on the streets than at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ruth and her friends would spend time and sleep safely in the tunnels inside Penn Station and in Central Park. They shared everything they had and built a sense of community that made survival possible. Because of the safety and support of this group, Ruth was able to go to school each day and get her GED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ruth remembers how Streetwork Project was conducting outreach out of the Traveler\u2019s Aid office in midtown. At Streetwork, Ruth and her crew were able to take showers, get food, and enjoy a safe space to hang out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Streetwork staff helped her find and furnish her own apartment and covered the bills for the first few months. Ruth had become part of the&nbsp;<em><strong>first<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/em>group of young people who \u201cgraduated\u201d or aged out of Streetwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, Ruth worked at Streetwork, providing young mothers with hot meals, childcare, and community. In 1997 she even spoke on the issue of homelessness at the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Ruth, home isn\u2019t just a place\u2014it\u2019s the people who care for you and offer a sense of safety and belonging. Streetwork gave her that, and she will always be grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ruth was part of the first group of young people who \u201cgraduated\u201d or aged out of Streetwork when the program began over 40 years ago. When she was 13, she felt safer living on the streets than at home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":{"id":10951,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1913,"height":1812,"file":"2024\/11\/Ruth-1.jpg","filesize":419367,"sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Ruth-1-300x284.jpg","width":300,"height":284,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":17539,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-300x284.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Ruth-1-1024x970.jpg","width":1024,"height":970,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":123943,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-1024x970.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Ruth-1-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":6985,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Ruth-1-768x727.jpg","width":768,"height":727,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":74856,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-768x727.jpg"},"1536x1536":{"file":"Ruth-1-1536x1455.jpg","width":1536,"height":1455,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":260592,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1-1536x1455.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"ambiguous_leo","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":10902,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ruth-1.jpg"},"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":{"custom_scripts":false,"eyebrow":"","heading":"","text":"","primary_cta":"","authors":false,"related_initiative_title":"","related_initiative_link":"","related_initiative_link_text":"","featured_posts":"","original_url":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.5 (Yoast SEO v26.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ruth&#039;s Story | Safe Horizon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ruth was part of the first group of young people who \u201cgraduated\u201d or aged out of Streetwork when the program began over 40 years ago. When she was 13, she felt safer living on the streets than at home. November 1, 2024 Veasna Has Safe Horizon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/stories\/ruths-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ruth&#039;s Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ruth was part of the first group of young people who \u201cgraduated\u201d or aged out of Streetwork when the program began over 40 years ago. When she was 13, she felt safer living on the streets than at home. 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