In honor of her remarkable courage to connect with others despite past trauma, we are thrilled to announce our 2023 Ultimate Courage Award Winner: Hope!!! Hope has been in our Don’t Go Alone program since 2020. Although her life has been full of trials and broken relationships, the one thing that she has never done is give up on the chance to form new, healthy relationships. When we told Hope that she won the Ultimate Courage Award, she shared with us that she has a tatoo on her wrist that says “courage” in Chinese. How fitting! Hope has shown great courage when facing relational trauma such as domestic violence, bullying and verbal abuse. She has demonstrated great courage when navigating unexpected challenges such as depression, chronic medical issues, over 40 surgeries, complications from surgeries, and health-mandated social isolation. Once, she had a six-hour surgery and the doctors were extremely impressed when she was up and walking the next day. Through it all, Hope has been deeply grateful for the support she receives from her Mentoring Family, Marcia. Marcia has supported Hope in many ways including staying with her in the hospital for hours on end, helping her purchase medications, spending quality time with her on a regular basis, and more. Hope also participates in a support group where she seeks to heal from her trauma by sharing her story and hearing the stories of others. In addition, Hope shared her story on behalf of Connections Homes at our annual gala in 2021 so that we could serve more youth like her. As a result of her caring and committed advocacy efforts, Hope was awarded the “Outstanding Human Services Student-Social Engagement and Advocacy Award” from Kennesaw State University. When that announcement was made, she received a standing ovation from her class! So today it is our JOY to congratulate Hope with another (virtual) standing ovation! Please join us in recognizing Hope as the winner of the 2023 Ultimate Courage Award!!!