Since being in program, Yesenia has reconnected with family.

She no longer feels alone

Yesenia’s life is a testament to resilience. Born into a large family in Cambria, she was the second youngest of 13 children. Her early years were marked by chaos, neglect, and abuse. By age 6, she had already experienced trauma no child should ever have to endure—molested by her father and unsupported by her mother. “The police came,” Yesenia recalled, “but nothing was done. I stayed living in that house.”

At 17, Yesenia became pregnant. Rather than being embraced, she was cast out. “My mom couldn’t accept that I got pregnant,” she said. “She told me to go.” Alone and vulnerable, she turned to methamphetamines.

Despite moments of stability—working jobs in customer service, living with her daughter and husband, and eventually becoming a military wife— Yesenia’s unhealed trauma followed her. Her relationships were unstable. Her mental and emotional tools for building a healthy home were absent, having never been modeled for her. “I didn’t know boundaries,” she explained. “I didn’t know what was good or bad.”

Her addiction returned with force after her first marriage ended. She remarried, had more children, and struggled through years of drug use and instability. In 2017, Child Protective Services removed her children from her custody, a moment that shattered her. “I couldn’t accept that they were given to someone else.”

What followed was a deepening of her addiction and a cycle of homelessness and arrests. She lost jobs, housing, and contact with her family. It wasn’t until 2023 when she woke up in a hospital after suffering brain damage from methamphetamine use that Yesenia reached a turning point. Facing legal consequences and a deeply rooted desire for change, she asked for help in court. Instead of incarceration, she was offered a spot in a 10-month residential recovery program at Rescue Mission Alliance Central Coast.

Since arriving, Yesenia has embraced recovery. She’s sober and is fully dedicated to the faith-based curriculum that challenges her to confront the core wounds of her past. “It’s hard,” she admitted, “especially the parts about relationships. I never had one growing up. I didn’t know how.”

Today, Yesenia is rebuilding. She’s reconnecting with her mother and sister after seven years of silence. She’s found community with the other women in the program and regularly attends Bible study at the Vineyard Church in Santa Maria. “It feels good not to be alone,” she said. “I feel like I belong.”

Above all, Yesenia is grateful. “This program picked me up from a really dark cloud,” she said. “It’s really hard to get off drugs. But this place gave me hope again.”

Her journey continues, but for the first time in years, Yesenia is moving forward, not just surviving, but healing.