Anthony Grissett brief autobiography
Hi, I am Anthony Grissett. I was born and raised in Newark NJ. I’m from a neighborhood that is overwhelmingly riddled with crime, gang violence, drug dealers, and drug users. Just about every day or every other day I would hear about someone who had been killed due to gun violence. My environment contributed to my downhill slide. Most of the men I looked up to were drug dealers and gang members. They were my idea of success, so I wanted to be just like them; so much so that I modeled my behavior after them.
I began to turn around when my girlfriend got pregnant and I realized I was going to be a father…
Click here to read the rest of my brief bio, drawn from my Creating Hope interview.
Lovely Warren brief autobiography
I was born and raised in the 19th Ward of Rochester, NY. Also, my grandparents lived on Jefferson Avenue, a more challenged part of the city. As a child growing up, life was pretty good with my mom working at Kodak and my dad working at Xerox. It was a classic middle class family. When I was about 13 years old things started to change for me. My father began using crack cocaine and developed a serious drug habit that really impacted our family. My dad and I were always very close, riding bikes together and playing tennis together. I began to see he was choosing drugs over me.
When I was about 13-14 my mom went to pick my dad up at a house where he was using drugs. When we got home he started to leave again, and I ran after him…
Click here to read the rest of my brief bio, drawn from my Creating Hope interview.
Chip (Larry) King brief autobiography
I grew up in the 19th Ward of Rochester, Genesee Street and Flint Street. I was one of 13 children. I had to overcome a number of obstacles. There were a number of us in the family and we couldn’t afford a lot. I was from a single parent home. Obstacles to overcome were peer pressure, selling drugs, fighting, stealing, emotional problems, being from a single parent home, problems at home, no food being on the table every night, and my oldest sister raising us.
At times it made me feel like I was drowning with no one to go through those things with me…
Click here to read the rest of my brief bio, drawn from my Creating Hope interview.
Ernest Flagler-Mitchell brief autobiography
Born in Rochester NY on January 19, 1978, I was one of six children. I attended and graduated from Rochester City schools: Schools number 33, 12, Monroe, and graduated from East High School in 1997. While in sixth grade at Monroe, I was placed in special education due to my behavior. I struggled in school, but knew I did not belong in special ed. I talked to God and God helped me to get out of special education. I worked hard my seventh grade year and by the eighth grade I was in mainstream classes.
One of the reasons I struggled was because my parents separated. My parents divorced because of my father’s drug use. I felt that the drugs destroyed my family and so I went on a rampage, running in gangs, becoming what many in the neighborhood would have called a “hell raiser”
Click here to read the rest of my brief bio, drawn from my Creating Hope interview.
LaShunda Leslie-Smith brief autobiography
My story is not unique. I grew up in the inner city of Rochester in a middle class family. From the outside our family looked OK but my stepfather was severely beating my mother with an extreme amount of domestic violence. We went to Alternatives for Battered Women (ABA, now Willow) a number of times. It was always a relief to be out of that house and in a safe place. It does something to a child to see someone they love do that to someone they also love. My feelings were very conflicted-“I love him, I hate him, I love him, I hate him.”
After a while I sought outside my home for that sense of belonging and to fill a void and need my family was not able to fill. Attention was given to my stepbrother and sister and I was left (the independent one) to fend for myself. I delved into different kinds of behaviors…
Click here to read the rest of my brief bio, drawn from my Creating Hope interview.
Sam Neil brief autobiography
My life is like any other city black kid. I was raised in a single parent home, unfortunately. My dad left when I was about 3 or 4. He used to abuse my mother. My mother was a strong woman and she kicked him out.
We picked apples in Sodus and Williamson. About 20 people from the family lived in one place. My grandfather held us all together and he taught us about respect and loving your family. When he died it was a huge void. We moved to Earl Street and my mother did what she could. But I missed my father and wondered why he didn’t want me-felt neglected…
Click here to read the rest of my brief bio, drawn from my Creating Hope interview.
Cuevas Walker brief autobiography
Hello, my name is Cuevas Walker. I am six years married with three children and Director of Go Ministries Inc.
My upbringing wasn’t that bad, though at one point we didn’t have much to eat and we got clothes and food from the dumpster. It didn’t stop me and my four sisters from having fun. I grew up with my mom and dad both living in the house, and in 1993 my mother went to nursing school and my dad started landscaping. I wasn’t getting into too much trouble growing up, outside of acting up in school, but in my mind, I had a list of things to do when I finally got “freedom”…
Click here to read the rest of my brief bio, drawn from my Creating Hope interview.
Gina Cuyler brief autobiography
I was born in Panama, Central America. My dad died suddenly when I was 2 years old, leaving my mom responsible for raising me on her own. The opportunities for women at that time in Panama were very limited so we packed what we could into two suitcases and came to New York City, a place where we did not have family or friends. Having no place to stay, we went to a hotel for women until my mom could find better accommodations.
We had very little but I remember my mom telling me that while she worked 3 jobs to provide for us, my job was to go to school and get an education…
Click here to read the rest of my brief bio, drawn from my Creating Hope interview.
