The Passion Behind Our Charity

Often, I am asked where the passion behind the charity comes from.

I share my story with the hopes that it will inspire children and at-risk youth to be kind to one another,

persevere through their hardships, and to challenge them to take their life stories to make the world a better
place.

Shame, punishment, loneliness, and bullying was all I ever knew. I just wanted to love and be loved. Imagine
being intentionally abandoned and orphaned at 12 years old on Thanksgiving Day. Imagine starving, walking
parking lots searching for loose change that fell out of people’s pockets as they got out of their cars in hopes
of finding 10 cents to buy a day-old donut to eat. Imagine walking in the pouring rain with there being no
distinction between your tears and the rain. Imagine being homeless and freezing with no hope of relief. To
imagine this is to look into the soul of my stolen childhood.

As horrific as these memories are, they gave me the gifts of empathy and compassion. I know what it feels
like to be degraded in poverty. The humiliation, embarrassment, and absolute heartbreak that goes with being
an abandoned child surviving on the streets. I know how hard it is to ask for help when you are trying to look
normal and fit in. I know how confusing it is to be unloved and unwanted as a child and not understand why
life is so hard, I know what it’s like to survive abuse and violence, I know what it’s like to be faint with hunger
and have to continue on, I know what it’s like to need educational support, I know how cruel other children
can be when they know you are not valued, and I know how scary child protective services is. I have a
profound understanding of the hardships the children we help are going through. My suffering gave me the
skill sets to be the prolific humanitarian that I am today, and for that I am grateful.

These experiences fuel my desire to help those most in need. It propels my unwavering stance in providing
dignity and respect to families and children who use our programs. It is the jet fuel that feeds my creativity
and grit in navigating the multiple layers of my charity to work in unison. It is my calling, my life’s mission, to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable children and to do it with love, respect, dignity, and compassion.

I thank each and every one of our community partners, our core team, and the children, and families we help, for
the absolute honor and privilege to work together in helping to make the world a better place.

Ms. Lisa Rosemarie Ray, Founder and CEO
Children’s Resource Network of California

“God does not choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen.