Jimmy has been a street kid for the past 4 years, since he was 15. The outreach team found Jimmy playing his guitar outside of Horton Plaza and began building a relationship with him. Initially, Jimmy presented like a traveler and was just “hanging out temporarily” in San Diego but as time went by, it became more obvious that Jimmy was staying in the area. He began coming into the drop-in center once or twice a week to shower, get clean clothes and say hi.
Initially, Jimmy was not open about his family or background history. He did say he had a father who lived locally but could not safely live with him because of past conflicts and his father’s girlfriend didn’t like him. Jimmy would disclose little pieces of himself and then would disappear for months at a time. All we knew was his mother and younger brother were living in an abusive situation in TX. and his father was in a new relationship in which Jimmy was not welcomed. He lived on the streets and stayed mainly to himself.
We lost contact with Jimmy shortly after we moved to our new outreach Center. During that time, we learned that Jimmy’s mother and brother came to San Diego to get away from the abusive relationship and Jimmy was able to spend some time with her for several months before her ex-boyfriend convinced her to return to TX. Jimmy remained here in San Diego and got his GED while living with his girlfriend’s family and visiting the drop-in center.
A few months ago, Jimmy’s mother left the abusive relationship because her partner became physically abusive toward her son. Jimmy began talking about wanting to “go home” to be with his mother and younger brother after he learned that his mother took a stance to protect his brother. He had several conversations with his mother before he approached our Kid Development Counselor and requested a Greyhound ticket home. We contacted his mother, who was overjoyed by the prospect of being reunited with her son. She cried and promised that her son would always have a place to live with her.
Two weeks later Jimmy boarded the bus to TX and his mother texted two days later letting us know he had safely arrived and that the family is happily together again. “I can never thank you enough for making this happen”. We wish them the best.
