Jonathan’s Story

Jonathan, 45, came to Winchester Rescue Mission on October 16, 2023, after recognizing he needed a safe, structured, and therapeutic environment where he could process some of the trauma he’d experienced over time.

Diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, Jonathon overcame fears about living with other people who were unhoused and struggling with addiction and mental health issues. “I learned humility,” he says. “I learned about coping strategies and how to process my emotions. Now I understand what my emotions are and what triggers them.” Almost six months after joining the Mission’s program, Jonathan met an old friend one Sunday at church who helped him locate a job and apartment. “I gained a reliable job, housing, and a church community, along with a good tool kit of coping strategies.”

For Jonathan, accessing mental health services in a compassionate Christian environment has enriched his life and made him more confident in a “neuro-typical” world. “I learned that if you are at your wit’s end, there is a place to go where people care,” he says. “There are more people on the spectrum who are homeless than people realize. They can be misconstrued as behaving badly when they are just trying to survive.”