MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After years of watching her mother suffer drug addiction, one woman is being the change for her family and the next generation.
Charita Glover recently joined the staff at The Salvation Army of Memphis & the Mid-South as a Child Watch Associate, but this isn’t her introduction to The Salvation Army. Her family is a former client at the Purdue Center.
“The Salvation Army has been a huge part of who I am. It’s where I come from,” said Glover.
The building on Jackson Avenue gave Glover and her siblings a safe and secure place to live. The Salvation Army of Memphis & the Mid-South also gave her mother, Stacie McGhee, a healthy place to get help.
“I am a product of a drug and alcohol abuser,” said Glover. “Just having to try to support (my mom), and I never wanted to see her struggling, but at the time, I was young, so I was helpless.”
But like the kids Glover works with today, there was help and healing.
Fast forward decades later, and Charita’s mother is the Director of our Renewal Place Program, which is a two-year program that strives to keep mothers and their children together while they work towards sobriety.
“For all of (my children) this is where their mom was reborn, so it is their second home. It’s a second home for many others. We’re just the ones who didn’t leave,” said McGhee, Charita’s mom.
They both believe that there are kids who need them.
“I’m going to give (them) that love and nurturing because I know that some of their parents are not able to do that. That’s what they need. They just need to know that they matter and they are seen and heard,” said Glover.
They also need to know that they don’t have to go on this journey alone and that is the message behind Glover’s new book “Journey to Self.”
“God turned me this way for a reason and what I went through is bigger than me. I have a bigger purpose here and I am here to share,” said Glover.
