Read Stories
Read below where people describe their experience with one or more of our “Mend the Gap” issue areas (Living Wages, Tax Justice, Family-Friendly Workplaces, Democracy, Healthcare, Citizenship, and Housing).
Go to Share Your Story to add yours
Filter by State:We're All Riding with the Nuns on the Bus
Jack Bopp and Arnie Alpert - Concord, New Hampshire
Sing along to this Nuns on the Bus song! (video) - Read More
Terrell on Affordable Care
Terrell Johnson - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Terrell is the community engagement specialist for the Health Federation of Philadelphia and works within their program "AC Outreach Enrollment." he shares his work and experiences. (video) - Read More
Emily's Uplifting Spirit
Emily Edwards - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Emily, who works with Witnesses to Hunger, shares her story as well as her uplifting message of service and optimism. (video) - Read More
Sahar on Female Empowerment
Sahar Alsahlani - Newark, New Jersey
Sahar shares her experience with multifaith social justice work and how working with other faiths, including her Catholic education, has helped her become a better social justice advocate and has deepened her faith as a Muslim. (video) - Read More
Robert and Integrity House
Robert Budsock - Newark, New Jersey
Robert explains the four pillars of Integrity house's program, the gaps experienced by those with a history of addiction, and stresses the value of lifting one another up for the betterment of all our lives. (video) - Read More
Adam Reaching Out for Help
Adam Pfeifer - Newark, New Jersey
Adam shares his struggle with addiction and the difficulties he faced trying to get help. (video) - Read More
Penelope's Support System
Penelope King - Newark, New Jersey
Penelope shares her experience with addiction and how Integrity house helped her recover from her addiction, pursue higher education, rebuild relationships with her children, and enter the work force. (video) - Read More
Michael on the Integrity Program
Michael Coleman - Newark, New Jersey
Michael shares his experience seeking help for addiction while on Medicaid and the particular strengths of Integrity house as a therapeutic community. (video) - Read More
Darnell Accepting Change
Darnell Smith - Newark, New Jersey
Darnell shares his story of addiction and change. (video) - Read More
Nate's Inner Calling
Nate Bonds - Newark, New Jersey
Nate shares his experience of alcoholism, including surviving seven near-fatal alcohol related car crashes, and his calling to be a preacher. (video) - Read More
Destiny on Lowest Points
Destiny Guenette - Newark, New Jersey
Destiny shares about her experience with addiction and the path to recovery at Integrity house. (video) - Read More
Stephanie on Having Faith
Stephanie Luna - Newark, New Jersey
Stephanie shares her path of recovery from addiction- from looking at jail time in a federal prison to now working on getting back her nursing degree, and how Integrity house has supported her journey. (video) - Read More
Sarah on Getting Resources and Community
Sarah Marsh - Newark, New Jersey
Sarah shares her struggle with addiction and how her therapeutic community is helping her recover. (video) - Read More
April's Story and Struggle
April Gelsinger - Scranton, Pennsylvania
April shares part of her story of homelessness and unemployment with children. (video) - Read More
Sister Kieran on Immigrant Voting Rights
Sr. Kieran Williams - Scranton, Pennsylvania
Sister Kieran shares her experience being a part of a community in Williamston, NC, where she works closely with the immigrant community. (video) - Read More
Carol on the Aging Population
Carol Storey - West Hartford, Connecticut
Carol shares her experience as a senior citizen and shares her concerns about affordable food and housing for the growing again population. (video) - Read More
Kathy on Mental Health and Disability
Kathy Flaherty - West Hartford, Connecticut
Kathy shares her concern for people with disabilities, particularly those with psychiatric labels, because they experience a lot of discrimination and often do not get the services and support they need to thrive. (video) - Read More
Janée’s Peaceful Rebellion
Janée Woods - West Hartford, Connecticut
Janée shares an experience disrupting a forum on race relations where community members weren't invited to draw attention to the disconnect between talk and action as well as draw the Black Lives Matter movement into the conversation. (video) - Read More
Kateri on Being Here
Kateri Fry - Providence, Rhode Island
Kateri shares her admiration for Sister Joan and her gratitude for being here in the present. (video) - Read More
Sister Eileen on Having a Voice
Sr. Eileen Brady - Concord, New Hampshire
Sister Eileen shares stories from her work through the Sisters of Mercy in Nashua, advocating for the importance of everyone to share stories and be politically engaged. (video) - Read More
Jazmine On Our Democracy Fight
Jazmine Langley - Concord , New Hampshire
Jasmine shares her personal story and the gaps she's encountered- especially ones that relate to racism and poverty. She also shares about the democracy gap and how we can join together to fight for our democracy. (video) - Read More
Cindy on Ladies First
Cindy Krautheim - Bennington, Vermont
Cindy shares about Ladies First- a program for women's health. (video) - Read More
Darius on Better Working Economy
Darius Cephus - Boston, Massachusetts
Darius shares his experience as a fast food worker and calls for a better economy that serves all people. (video) - Read More
Ellen on Disability Social Justice
Ellen Frith - Boston, Massachusetts
Rev. Ellen Frith shares about her experience documenting places that are inaccessible to persons with a disability, and the sacrifices she has made in her effort to mend the gaps- from assault to time in jail. (video) - Read More
Keith on a List of Change
Keith Yergeau - Manchester, New Hampshire
Keith recognizes the issue of "big money politics." He calls for the US to move toward public financing of elections, disclosing donors, and having bipartisan re-districting to end gerrymandering and ensure that every voice is heard. (video) - Read More
Amanda's Fight for 15
Amanda Monroe - Albany, New York
Amanda has been active in the Fight for 15 movement for the last two years and she shares how she is struggling to support two children on the minimum wage. (video) - Read More
Mayor Kathy on Bridging the Gaps
Mayor Kathy Sheehan - Albany, New York
Mayor Kathy Sheehan shares some gaps she's noticed in society, commends the work of the Nuns on the Bus, and encourages everyone to advocate for mending the gaps. (video) - Read More
Willy White on transportation in Albany
Willy White - Albany, New York
Willy White shares a story about how his community came together to advocate for a bus route to come into their community. (video) - Read More
Congressman Paul Tonko on Nuns and Community
Congressman Paul Tonko - Albany, New York
Congressman Paul Tonko speaks to the need for and importance of the Sisters' "people-powered bus" and shares a vision for mending the gaps. (video) - Read More
Nikki on Paying it Forward
Nikki Haynesworth - Rochester, New York
Nikki is the program coordinator for Women on the Move at St. Joseph's Neighborhood Center and shares how the agency fills the gaps in terms of medical care in the community, as well as her personal experiences in with the center. (video) - Read More
It's Not Fair! The Florida Immigrant Policy Gap
Kayjoy Cooper - Wyncote, Pennsylvania
In my dozen years in Miami I never ceased to give my theme song to the Handmaids' many Cuban friends: We rejoice in the "wet foot/dry foot" policy of the US government which allowed you, your parents, families, and friends into the country... - Read More
Rev. Kirk on Doing Better
Rev. Kirk Laubenstein - Buffalo, New York
Rev. Kirk is active in the Fight for 15 campaign and shares a story from his experience that reminds him that we have to do better. (video) - Read More
Joan on a Nurse's Story
Joan Malone - Buffalo , New York
Joan shares the story of a nurse's aide who works 12 hour shifts at an assisted living facility run by the diocese and a vision for a more efficient, ethical, and productive healthcare system. (video) - Read More
Congressman Higgins on Nuns and Healthcare
Congressman Brian Higgins - Buffalo, New York
Congressman Brian Higgins shares his experience working on healthcare in Congress- and credits Catholic Sisters in America with saving healthcare. He also shares a story of Rep. John Lewis' experience in Buffalo, NY. (video) - Read More
Josiah on Conserving Education for Youth
Josiah Leach - Erie, Pennsylvania
Josiah shares his experiences and frustrations working with the youth of Erie, including as a "Big Brother" in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. (video) - Read More
Kathy's Struggle with Temporary Employment
Kathy Pellikka - Toledo, Ohio
Kathy shares her experience being a temporary worker for ten years at an automotive company. (video) - Read More
Carole Jambarad-Sweet on Not Having Enough
Carole Jambarad-Sweet - Toledo, Ohio
Carole, a food pantry volunteer, shares how a young child in the food pantry strengthened her dedication to helping those who "don't have enough." (video) - Read More
Ruthie on Teens Raising their Siblings
Ruthie Steel - Toledo, Ohio
Ruthie shares about her friends, aged fifteen and eighteen, who are forced into "being parents" for their nieces/nephews or siblings while the childrens' parents have to work most of the day. (video) - Read More
Alejandro Rodela on his Police Encounter
Alejandro Rodela - Toledo, Ohio
Alejandro shares a personal experience with racial profiling by police. (video) - Read More
Representative Marcy Kaptur on How Long it Takes
Rep. Marcy Kaptur - Toledo, Ohio
Rep. Marcy Kaptur shares how challenging it can be to get anything done in our political system and encourages perseverance. (video) - Read More
Julian Mack on Local Racial Inequality
Julian Mack - Toledo, Ohio
Julian is a local activist in the Black Lives Matter movement and shares his call for unity to affect real change and bring about equality and fairness in our country. (video) - Read More
Dr. Jonathan Ross on the Complexity of Healthcare
Dr. Jonathan Ross - Toledo, Ohio
Dr. Jonathan Ross calls for a healthcare system that better serves patients by cutting down on the immense complexity an bureaucracy which increases costs and decreases effectiveness. (video)
- Read More
Enedilla Cisneros on Working Hard
Enedilla Cisneros - Toledo, Ohio
Enedilla shares her experience in the last 44 years as a migrant farm worker, including the need for education on rights of workers, the value of hard work, and the continuing lack of health insurance. (video) - Read More
Therese on Income Issues
Therese Spencer - Fort Wayne, Indiana
Therese shares how her family is the first to be doing work than earlier generations. (video) - Read More
Jennifer's Story of Rebuilding
Jennifer Freeland-Davis - Fort Wayne, Indiana
Jennifer shares her family's story of going from a "typical suburban family" to living in a shelter following her husband's heart attack and severe injury, and their difficult road to recovery. (video) - Read More
Wanita on Mentality
Wanita Coleman - Fort Wayne, Indiana
Want shares about the importance of having the right mentality, and the challenges of encouraging healthy mentalities for families. (video) - Read More
Sonya's Perseverance Through Struggle
Sonya Carter - Fort Wayne, Indiana
Sonya shares her difficulties trying to raise her children while dealing with judgment and racism. (video) - Read More
Leila on Racial Struggles
Leila Roach - Fort Wayne, Indiana
Leila shares her story, including personal struggles with racism, mental health, and single motherhood. (video) - Read More
Friar Mario on the Divide
Friar Mario Serrano - Terre Haute, Indiana
Friar Mario shares some of his views on immigration, as well as some of his personal experience. (video) - Read More
Bobbie on Community and Affordable Housing
Bobbie Sykes - St. Louis, Missouri
Bobbie of Voices of Women calls attention to the need for community and affordable housing in neighborhoods experiencing or at risk for gentrification. (video) - Read More
Wayne Lee on Transportation with Disabilities
Wayne Lee - Jefferson City, Missouri
Wayne is a member of the transit advisory committee of Jefferson City- he travels almost exclusively on public transit due to uncontrolled epilepsy preventing him from being able to safely drive himself. (video) - Read More
DeeAnn on State Employee Wages
DeeAnn Mckenny - Jefferson City, Missouri
DeeAnn is a Missouri state employee- she shares her experiences with employee wages and leave, and asked for all employers and employees to follow the golden rule and treat others as they'd like to be treated. (video) - Read More
Ann's Health Care Crisis
Ann Anderson - Jefferson City, Missouri
When Ann's health took a turn for the worse she didn't have health insurance. She shares her story and call for health care. (video) - Read More
Ms. Angie's Fight for the Better
Angela Whitman - Jefferson City, Missouri
Ms. Angie is a leader in her community- here she shares her experience, stories, and vision for a better future. (video) - Read More
Reginald Dale on the Importance of Lives
Reginald Dale - Springfield, Illinois
Reginald Dale gives her personal experience with racism in the police, her concerns for black men and others impacted by the structural racism and unfair treatment, and gives us pointers on how to become more involved and make a difference in our communities. (video) - Read More
Diana Ducett on Health Care in Illinois
Diana Ducett - Bloomington, Illinois
Diana Ducett shares her experience with the payment system for her insurance for Illinois state employees. (video) - Read More
Liz German on Food Regulations
Liz German - Bloomington, Illinois
Liz German is the vice-president of operations at YWCA McLean County, and she shares her experience utilizing the state subsidized food program in the childcare programs run at the YWCA. (video) - Read More
Betty Gilbert's Personal Story
Betty Gilbert - Janesville, Wisconsin
Betty Gilbert shares the tragic story of her son's death at the age of 56 because of a lack of healthcare. (video) - Read More
Julie Eide on Minimum Wage
Julie Eide - Janesville, Wisconsin
Julie Eide speaks about her experiences of homelessness and eviction with three young children, as well as the need for affordable health care to keep families like hers together. (video) - Read More
Dr. Neddy Astudillo on Immigration
Dr. Neddy Astudillo - Janesville, Wisconsin
Dr. Neddy Astudillo reminds us that immigrants are not strangers among us, but valuable, loving, and hardworking members of our communities, and families- our friends, colleagues, neighbors, and relatives. (video) - Read More
Wayne Skattum on his Daughter's Health
Wayne Skattum - Janesville, Wisconsin
Wayne's daughter experiences chronic pain and lives with her family in Wayne's home- in pain and unable to afford other housing options. Hear Wayne's experience and his call for affordable, accessible health care for all people. (video) - Read More
Ginny on Health Insurance
Ginny Spernoga - Madison, Wisconsin
Ginny Spernoga is a nurse who works with patients who don't have health care- she is excited about mending the gaps to provide health care to all! (video) - Read More
Part-time Employee, No Employment, No Retirement
Margaret Meeker - Williamstown, West Virginia
I have a friend in her early 50's who has been working for a huge bank for two years. She doesn't get insurance because she is part time and does not make enough to pay for food and rent with the same pay check. - Read More
Our Sister and the Nuns on the Bus
Jini Kai MacAdam - Madison, Wisconsin
The beginning of the remarkable journey of Margaret and the Nuns on the Bus began in a sadly unremarkable way. Margaret lost her job. She lost her health insurance. And she lost her life. In that order.
(text and video) - Read More
Feeding and Housing the Homeless
Ruth Berra - Appleton, Wisconsin
Our FOX VALLEY WARMING CENTER feeds and houses 60 people year round. - Read More
Shelter the Homeless
Patricia Kane - Stewartsville, New Jersey
Economic collapse and hurricanes hit our area and affected those who who are most vulnerable. We also have Latino immigrants who struggle to gain a foothold in our culture. - Read More
We Need to Bring Back the Value of Community
Susan Carpenter - San Francisco, California
The stories that sadden me the most in our country are the stories of prisoners. I have worked as a prison chaplain in California so I have experience of this side of life. When people enter our prisons, it is as if their rights are taken away. - Read More
Living Wages for Adjunct Professors
Julian Long - St. Louis, Missouri
Of course, I experience the same divides that everybody in this society does, and I am very much aware, as the sister was saying at the end of her talk, of the fact that my white skin gives me privileges that other people don’t have. - Read More
Political Polarization in South Carolina
Sarah Damewood - Leesville, South Carolina
Here in South Carolina, I see so much polarization between Democrats and Republicans. It is so important that we find areas of agreement and learn to have civil, constructive discussions about how we can solve our problems together. - Read More
We Need to Mend the Gap in Access to Citizenship
Naomi Carranza - St. Louis, Tennessee
There’s a lot of discrimination that I’ve faced so many times in my life, throughout the nine years—nine, ten years—that I’ve been living in St. Louis. I’ve gone to McDonald’s, I’ve gone to Walgreens, even in my own school there’s a little bit of division with the girls or anything… - Read More
Connecting People to Food and Each Other
Danny - Wheeling, West Virginia
One of the first things I noticed when I moved to East Wheeling after growing up in the country is that kids had very little connection with things natural. (video) - Read More
Gap in Access to Healthcare: Terry's Story
Terry McCallister - St. Louis, Missouri
I actually filed for and received disability in 2013. At that time, I had COBRA insurance, which was a little over $700 a month, which is more than half of the disability that I bring in, so I had to drop my COBRA. I had some money in a 401k - Read More
Only a Loving Community Can Heal What's Been Broken
Jennifer Clinger - Nashville, Tennessee
By the time women get to the streets, there are several illegal hustles they rely on. Using drugs to deal with everyday life, theft, and then it's just a revolving door from jails, prisons, rehabs, psych wards, streets. A lot of my sisters never made it out alive. - Read More
The Gap in Democracy and Registering to Vote
Mary Akerstrom - Topeka, Kansas
We have a lot of people who are not registered to vote in Kansas. There was a very low turnout in the last governor election, so that is one way Republican and Democrats can work together to get people out there and get them voting. - Read More
Remember Dr. King's True Call
Rev. Wendell Griffen - Little Rock, Arkansas
I want to talk about the need that Dr. Martin Luther King called for a year to the day before he was murdered, for a "radical revolution of values" away from profits and property to people and personhood... - Read More
When We Make People "Other"
Brendan O'Conner - Nashville, Tennessee
If you look at, you know, a lot of newspapers, but certainly in our region, any popular newspaper publication, like the Tennessean or the Nashville Scene... - Read More
Sister Janice's Ministry of Direct Service
Janice Thome - Topeka, Kansas
I’m from Garden City Kansas, which is an hour from the Colorado border and an hour from the Oklahoma border. There I am involved in the Dominican Sisters Ministry of Presence... - Read More
Stepping Out of Our Comfort Zone
Carlita Logan - St. Louis, Missouri
I think the message that I want to give—just to reiterate—is I think if each individual would take a moment to step outside of their comfort zone, and you can do that in a lot of ways like Sister said you can be in a coffee shop and say “Hi” to a stranger... - Read More
Rev. Jennifer's Housing Story
Rev. Jennifer Bailey - Nashville, Tennessee
There's a disconnect here in Nashville between this image of wanting to be the "It" city, this image of wanting to be the next big thing, but forgetting that there's a history. So one of the stories that was told at the table around this question of affordable housing and development... - Read More
Matt's "End the Line" Strategy
Matt Habash - Columbus, Ohio
If we're really going to close the meal gap in this country, we've got to have an "end the line" strategy. So we call it "feed the line and end the line." (video) - Read More
Walking 100 Miles for Immigration Reform
Martha Lugo - Nashville, Tennessee
I was part of this pilgrimage, march "100 Women 100 Miles." They set off from York County, Pennsylvania and we met the second part of the march at Baltimore, Maryland. From there, we walked the rest of the journey to meet the pope in Washington, D.C. - Read More
Nutrition Programs and Medicaid Help Children - I Know
Mario - Washington, DC
My name is Mario, and I live in Washington DC. I grew up on food stamps. When I was a kid, my father left my family and my mother was a single mother. She spent most of her time when my father was living with us as a housewife, so she didn’t have many marketable skills after my father left. - Read More