“I wanted someone to see me, I wanted someone to see I needed help, to see beyond my story…”

In her 20’s Candice Cruz and her newborn experienced homelessness for over a year and half while living in Brooklyn, New York. Unwilling to further hurt her family, she chose to navigate that season alone. What she most wanted back then is what she provides young women today-

“I wanted someone to see me, I wanted someone to see I needed help, to see beyond my story, my home,”

Time went on, and the tables turned and soon it was Candice who was ‘seeing’ beyond young women’s homelessness and believing it was her responsibility to help them find their way.

Soon she was  taking young women and children in need into her home and offering up her space as a way of being, a way of living.

“The thought of a non-profit didn’t even cross my mind.” recalls, Candice. As she saw it, she was being called by God to be the person she wished she would have met when she lived on the streets of New York with her child.

In a meeting with a city official a little over 2 years ago, Candice was informed she’d saved the state over 3.5 million dollars by homing 97 young girls and mothers over the course of 9 years. It was then she knew it was time to launch a non-profit organization Hands Off and turn her life mission and calling into her full-time career.

She has taken her own advice and ‘followed her hurt’ and by doing so discovered her life work, her calling. In addition to her work with young woman Candice and her business partner have begun a movement 7to9 to call for the FCC to ban explicit music content during the hours youth are most likely to be listening to the radio.

This episode is for anyone and everyone whose ever wanted to turn their pain into service for others. A woman of faith and a powerful advocate for women, Candice reminds girls and women of all ages, “WE BIRTH NATIONS.”

Order Candice’s book, 7 Days of Purpose: The Journey Within,  today and remember it’s never too late to become the person you always imagined yourself being…

xoxo

Pam