At 17 years old, Javier—known to friends as Javi—is learning that a person’s story doesn’t have to end where it began.
Living with his grandmother and older sister, people he remains deeply close to, his life took a difficult turn that pulled him further from the life he wanted. After losing a loving and impactful relationship with his girlfriend, Javi dropped out of high school and found himself caught in a cycle of alcohol addiction, trouble with the law, and influences that led him to jail. “I was in a bad headspace,” he says. “I was desperate to bring any kind of joy into my life.”
Deeply depressed, Javi arrived at Rawhide in November 2025, and the adjustment was far from easy. “I’m a pretty shy person,” he explains. “If I don’t know you, I won’t talk too much.” But slowly, something began to change.
The place that once felt strange began to feel safe. Javi started to see himself differently. Where he once felt dread about the man he was becoming, he now speaks about something much deeper that will carry him forward: self-respect. “I hated seeing myself in the mirror,” he shares. “Now I respect myself. And I realized I can’t respect other people if I can’t respect my emotions.”
Today, Javi is sober through our specialized substance use program and learning how to face life without relying on drugs or alcohol. Therapy with Ms. Cassie has helped him find words for emotions he once kept buried. He discovered joy again by racing scooters around campus, listening to music, and finding ways to make the hard days lighter.
Through rediscovering his faith and the presence of caring mentors, he began to fill the emptiness he once carried. Javi is proud of the choices, especially those no one sees, as he remains focused on his program. “I stay out of the drama and focus on myself,” he says.
What motivates him are the people back home who support him, like his family and close friend Mya, and those who doubted him, like his father, who told him he would be a failure and disappointment. Now, Javi is determined to rewrite that narrative and prove that he is capable of more. “I’m not the bad person I thought I was,” he says. “Not everyone is out to get me. There are people who want to support me.”
Looking ahead, Javi plans to earn his diploma—one of the first in his family to do so—and dreams about becoming an astrobiologist. “Seeing other people happy makes me happy,” he says. “When I’m financially stable, I want to give back and help people.”
Most importantly, he hopes to carry one powerful lesson with him when he leaves Rawhide: the understanding that he never has to face life alone.
Javier’s message to donors: “Thank you for giving us a second chance and for seeing us as people, not just criminals.”