Sharon Kayode would do anything for her sons, Raimone and Raimi, but the best thing she could have done was push them into Family Hope Center Houston/Aldine’s Teen Program. She had to push hard at first.

“The first day I brought them here, they were like, ‘I don't want to be here mom,’ she recalled. And I was like, ‘Well this is the program that I filed for you for the summer and you going to have a great time.’"

The resistance continued for a couple of weeks, she said, but attitudes changed “and they started becoming more motivated. In the mornings they were waking me up and saying, ‘Mom, we're ready to go, it’s time to go to Aldine.’”

They two were most motivated ay a sense of entrepreneurship, she explained. “They were very excited about learning to make their own money. They realized that in the corporate world there are certain skills that they need to have to be successful, and by coming to this program they realized this a year later and they’re trying to actually put it into play at this particular time in their life.”

Kayode said she dreams of a time when her sons “become entrepreneurs. They are very creative. They like to interact with people, so I think this would be a very good opportunity for them.

“I love them very much and I just want the best for them. I want them to make right decisions, and being guided by this type of program it is assisted me to help that come into existence.”

Andrea de la Paz is a working mother who enrolled her children Eric, 17, and Mariah, 7, in the center’s programs to strengthen their family ties.

“They were going through counseling because I was a mother of five, with the divorce and everything, so I was getting them counseling,” she explained. “I was driving by and saw these signs and I said, ‘Oh, maybe help is here,’ and that's how I called the number and got here and enrolled Mariah. Weeks later I noticed that Eric needed help -- he was going on the wrong path, choosing the wrong friends – so I enrolled him and now everything is different.”

Prior to coming into the program, she described her children as “violent. They were fighting each other and stuff, and now since we started the program everything has stopped.

“Mariah loves the children’s program and by coming to the teen program, Eric communicates better with others and he stays away from trouble,” she said. “He says the program has helped him in a big way where he makes the right decisions, which is continuing his education. And he's learning a lot.

“I have a peace of mind here. I know my kids are in good hands. They come because they know they can count on them (the staff),” she said. Eric will come and if he has a problem he will come in and talk to Miss Monique, the teenage teacher. He’s opened up with her and that counts a lot to me as a mother that he gets that help.”