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 © Open Society Institute |
Baltimore, Maryland
2008
It was after her parents' divorce that Shirell Tyner started hanging with the wrong crowd, spending far too much time out of school and in the streets, and smoking marijuana. By the time she was in her late 20s, Tyner found herself serving a three-year sentence for shoplifting.
It was in that experience, that Tyner, now 43, found her calling.
"When I went to prison, I saw so many girls suffering," Tyner said. "And one day these words came to me in a vision: Caring Through the Spiritual Eye. It means caring spiritually, not carnally. You have to care in spite of what you see, because no matter what, they are all still human."
That philosophy has become the backbone of Tyner's work with "Caring Through the Spiritual Eye," a nonprofit organization that Tyner started after her release from jail, to help women secure transitional housing, whether they are homeless, ex-offenders, drug abusers, or prostitutes.
Each night, Tyner takes to the streets, finding women and plugging them in to resources such as GED classes, detoxification centers, or HIV/AIDS clinics.
Tyner plans to use her fellowship to expand the works of that nonprofit, which is housed in a church in Park Heights. One day, she'd like to open her own transitional/emergency housing shelter.
Tyner grew up in Park Heights, in a family she said struggled financially but was far from dysfunctional. That is, until her parents divorced and her father moved out of state, taking a toll on the young woman, who found the wrong kind of therapy on the streets.
Her own experiences have given her a special love for the women of Park Heights.
"I can relate to their life because I used to be where they are," Tyner said. "I was out in the streets. I was homeless. I used to be in prison, until God transformed my life and gave me a new way of thinking and gave me another chance. Now I give back to the population that I come from."
Tyner said it is heartbreaking to encounter disadvantaged women on the streets. One woman she found living under a bridge with her child. Another 12-year-old girl who is HIV-positive asked Tyner how she could get birth control, because she was afraid of passing on the virus to a baby.
Week in and week out, Tyner keeps clean clothes for needy women at the nonprofit offices, feeds the homeless, takes mothers' children to visit them in prison, and stops prostitutes on the street, encouraging them to find a better way to live.
"I fight real hard," Tyner said. "Sometimes they push me away, but I let them know that I'm not going nowhere. Some of them come with me and I help them get resources. They don't really want to be out there, but this is all they know."
