More than a year ago, Liz Garcia felt like she was living in solitary confinement. Residing in the Bronx at the time, she struggled through the psychological and emotional pain of an abusive relationship.

There were days when Garcia wouldn’t speak. There were days when she would question her sanity. There were nights when “evil entities” chased her in her nightmares.

Garcia said her boyfriend never physically abused her. The pain inflicted, she said, was mental.

One day, Garcia was at home when her boyfriend came out of the kitchen with a knife and started walking toward her.

“He came with the knife, and at the last minute — I thought he was going to stab me,” Garcia said. “He turned the knife around on himself and he said, ‘Here, stab me in my heart. It’s like you’re ripping my heart out. Here. Just stab me.’”

After that moment, Garcia left her boyfriend in search of a shelter. A couple weeks later, she found her way to Exodus 3 Ministries in Syracuse. 
Exodus 3 Ministries is an all-encompassing, solution-focused nonprofit organization for women in dangerous situations. The women live in The Exodus House while they go through a program that teaches a variety of life skills and provides them with a safe environment to recover from personal struggles. Exodus 3 refers to a chapter in the Old Testament of the Bible in which God calls on Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. 

On Saturday, Garcia became the first woman to graduate from the program. Four other women with stories like Garcia’s remain at the home.

The shelter relies completely on donations and volunteers, said Cathy Peterson, the volunteer coordinator at Exodus 3. Volunteers are responsible for different tasks ranging from answering phones to teaching life skills like sewing, cooking and crafts.

Still, the organization often struggles to collect adequate donations, said Debra Person, the executive director of Exodus 3.

Person opened The Exodus House last October after going through rehabilitation herself and receiving her master’s degree in social work, specializing in community organization, policy, planning and administration, from Syracuse University in 2008. Person admitted Garcia into the home three days before the program officially opened on Oct. 1, 2012, due to Garcia’s circumstances.

When Person first met Garcia, she said, Garcia appeared to be closed off. Person said Garcia would sit in the dining room in the dark or read in a dark corner wearing dark glasses and a hood.

Since then, Person has witnessed Garcia’s transformation.

“I met her where she was at and started walking with her. Walking her journey of darkness with her,” Person said.

Person said she’s able to recognize and understand all of her residents because she’s been in their shoes. She’s been to rehab, she’s been incarcerated. She’s also a survivor of molestation and rape. Because of her experiences, she is able to understand from where her residents are coming, she said.

“I’m speaking from experience. Not from a book, not from an associate’s degree, not from a bachelor’s degree, not from a master’s degree. I’m speaking from hard knocks. Real life. That’s mine. That’s first and most important,” Person said.

Garcia has now set a precedent for other residents in the program, Person said.

Samantha Volles, current resident of The Exodus House and a former drug addict, said that so far, the program has drastically changed her life.

“I was in a drug addiction that was so hard to break, I couldn’t go two weeks without relapsing,” she said. “And now, I’ve been living six months clean. Not even having a thought or a memory since I came here in May.”

Volles enrolled in the program last May and intends to follow in Garcia’s shoes by graduating in May 2014.

Garcia’s mother, Maria Fernandez, surprised her daughter on Saturday by attending the graduation. Although she had communicated with Garcia by phone during her time at the shelter, Fernandez had not seen her daughter in person for a full year.

Fernandez said that in the last year, she has seen a transformation in her daughter.
Said Garcia: “That imprisonment of fear has been lifted, and now I’m just like, in freedom. You know? I’m living in freedom now. In one year.”

Published on October 21, 2013 at 1:43 am