Training Instructor at CSTP
―No voucher, no food stamps. It‘s all personal
income now,‖ the father of the Barnum family is
proud to say. The family keeps a small connection
to Our House with the CAFSI program, but, Cliff
Barnum says, ―where we are now, we‘re totally
independent. I pay all of my bills.‖
Cliff, sitting at the kitchen table feeding his oneyear-old daughter, explains what he does at his
job with the Civilian Student Training Program
(CSTP), a military-style program for at-risk teens.
―Basically,‖ Cliff says between bits of baby talk
with his daughter, ―I‘m a drill sergeant.‖
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Cliff says the most important part of his time at
Our House was our youth programs. Being an
army veteran, Cliff wasn‘t worried about living
with the unknowns that come with homelessness,
but he didn‘t know if his kids could handle it. ―I
was in the army. I‘m used to surviving, being in
situations where everything is not necessarily
peaches and cream. I was worried about the kids.
They had just lost their biological mom. She
walked out on them at Christmastime, and now
they didn‘t have a home. The youth programs
took a lot of stress off of me worrying about the
kids being stressed. They were able to have fun,
make friends, stay in school, catch the bus right
there. Nothing stopped. Everything was still
basically normal routine.‖