Grand Rapids shelter helps one teen find escape
Looking back, Da’Vionte Shannon recalled a time when each day seemed like a tightrope walk.
At age 17, about a year ago, he decided life at home was leading nowhere good. His three brothers were in jail. His mother lost their apartment in Grand Rapids when she couldn’t make the rent. They moved in temporarily with a friend. She got a new place, but then one of his brothers returned from jail. Without spelling it out, he said things were less than peaceful at home.
“I knew that I would have to get away from that environment. I had to find a different path,” he said.
So he left, splitting time at the home of his girlfriend and of his uncle.
“I was scared. It was like you had to have a plan for each day. What if I come home one day and they (the family of his girlfriend) kick me out and my uncle is out of town? It means you don’t have anywhere to go.”
In October 2013, he entered a Grand Rapids shelter for homeless youth called The Bridge for two weeks, then again for two weeks last March. He stayed in transitional housing connected to the shelter for five months, then found an apartment of his own.
He application for emancipation was approved by Kent County Circuit Court in November 2013. That means he is free from control by his parents.
Ted Roelofs
11 December 2014
http://bridgemi.com/2014/12/grand-rapids-shelter-helps-one-teen-find-escape/
