At one point in his life, Robert Ford was living the American dream. He was an Army veteran, had a job he loved, owned his own home and his wife was pregnant with their first child, Magan. Then, things went downhill. Robert got into trouble and was sent to the penitentiary. Magan was just 10 days old when her father left to serve his time. Thirty years later, Robert, on the advice of his parole officer, walked through our front doors humbled and eager for a new life. 
He enrolled in the Fresh Start Program, where he received physical, mental and emotional support as he rediscovered the person he once was.
“The Mission helped me put one foot in front of the other, instead of one foot forward, one foot backward,” Robert says. Robert and Magan had exchanged a few letters while Robert was in jail, but when she heard he was healing at Los Angeles Mission, Magan was ready to visit him in person.
At their emotional reunion, Magan got to do something she had waited her whole life for: hug her dad. “I’m thankful for Los Angeles Mission,” Magan says. “Without them, my dad wouldn’t be around to see his granddaughter’s first steps.” “Magan welcomed me after all the times I wasn’t there for her,” Robert says. “I’m really blessed to have her.” Robert, who now works at Los Angeles Mission, says he will be forever grateful for the “unbelievable generosity of the donors who keep the doors open.”
For more information about Los Angeles Mission and its programs.