Family Promise’s Christine Carter Love
Leading with Hope
Christine Carter Love is the executive director of Family Promise of
Monmouth County. She took on the role she deeply loves in 2018,
to lead the organization through transformational change – something
she knows a lot about. Today, working with more than 50 interfaith
congregations and more than 1,200 volunteers devoted to removing
barriers for homeless families, they have achieved incredible outcomes.
One hundred percent of Family Promise’s Emergency Shelter graduates
have moved on to transitional or permanent housing and have achieved
insurmountable goals. Love’s personal journey of transformation plays a
big role in it all.
Love was born and raised in what she refers to as the “concrete jungle”
of Newark.
“Children, like me, are the residue of the ’80s,” she said. “We’re
what’s left after crack, heroin, violence and hellish conditions ravaged
our families.”
She has met many others who know a different Newark prior to the
“crack era.” They all share something in common, she said, in that they
are “tough, resourceful and resilient.”
For her strength, she credits her maternal great-grandmother, Marguerite
Grace King, a domestic worker from the deep South who cleaned
office buildings for a living.
“She was my angel,” Love said. “She had only one non-negotiable
requirement. ‘Get your education or else! It’s the only thing they can’t
take away.’”
Love recalled, “My mother, infant brother Lamar and I lost our public
housing apartment in the Dayton Street projects. I can vividly recall the
padlocks on the door. I didn’t know we were homeless.”
She moved with her mother and brother into several drug-infested
motels. She said there was prostitution, violence, drug abuse, partying
and lots of unsupervised children. Love traveled alone by bus to the first
grade and ran away to her Nana’s, hiding under the kitchen sink to avoid
returning to what she described as “hell”.
Then, on Christmas Eve when Love was just 7 and her brother 2,
their 24-year-old mother lost her battle to addiction and HIV/AIDS.
“Resentment began festering in my heart,” she admitted. “How
could she abandon us? It has taken me nearly 30 years to understand.
I still wonder who my mother would be today, with treatment, help and
unconditional love.”
A relative had taken Love to Calvary Baptist Church every Sunday.
“At 11 years old, I established a real relationship with God,” she
said. “I thought I had finally found my peace.”
Then the sad day came when her Nana tragically died after a fall.
What she knew as love was gone. Love said she attempted suicide three
times and bounced from foster home to foster home. She then couch
surfed with friends and distant relatives, carrying all her belongings in
black, plastic garbage bags.
Her math teacher, Faythe Allen, challenged her after she failed all
her classes and her High School Proficiency Test. She reminded her of the
education her Nana encouraged her to earn. Love was assigned a social
worker and moved into a girls’ group home.
“It was the first time since I was 7 that I felt safe from physical, verbal
and sexual abuse,” she said. “God was working his miracles, showering
me with grace and caring adults who helped me succeed. I graduated
at the top of my class. I became a professional social worker in 2003. I
applied for every college scholarship and was awarded over $125,000.
I headed to Norfolk State University where I had some of the best times
36 MAY 2020 | TheJournalNJ.com
BY LORI DRAZ
of my life. I was elected freshman and sophomore class president, joined
the illustrious Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and became the first female elected
Student Government Association president in the university’s history, all
while earning a 3.9 GPA.”
“Then I got the news that my father had lost his battle,” she added.
“They cremated him. I didn’t even get to go to the funeral or say goodbye.
I was alone in the world.”
At 22, Love had her first child and said she had “never experienced
love like this.”
Love bought a home, her brother graduated top of his class, and the
healing really began. In 2006, she left her guaranteed paycheck from
DYFS to start a multi-service nonprofit agency called Against All Odds to
serve families whose stories reflected my own. She also earned her master’s
in business administration from Northeastern University.
“But by 2011, I was divorced with two children,” she said. “In 2012,
Against All Odds’ funding was eliminated, and we had to close. Our
team had to find new employment. In my mind, I had failed. I became extremely
depressed. I was self-medicating, drinking heavily and suffered
a nervous breakdown. The entire year is a blur.”
Then, in 2013, a friend named Charles Love told her to “get off the
floor and be who God called her to be.” Slowly, she began speaking to
large audiences about resilience and strength. The two married on July
4, 2016.
Like so many, Love’s story is one of grit, soul and God’s grace.
“I hope to inspire someone else to hold on,” she said. “Keep the
faith, and God will keep His promises to you.”
Although Family Promise was forced to cancel its sixth annual Promise
of Spring on May 6, the funds raised each year are needed even more
now. The nonprofit has reimagined the annual event in light of COVID-19
and social distancing; a Virtual Promise of Spring will be held this year.
To learn more, donate, volunteer and learn about upcoming events, visit
FamilyPromiseMC.org.
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