Sana Cotten is the walking embodiment of victory, not victim. She’s the founder and president of Unashamed Inc., a nonprofit she created to give people who find themselves in need of support services that aren’t always met by community groups, faith organizations or state agencies.
“There are families within our communities that don’t exactly meet the requirements for DCF to be involved in their families. Or maybe they have more need than social services is able to give based on income requirements or family size or just situations” Cotten said. “Our goal is to provide resources and initiatives that will help to break some of the generational cycles that a lot of families have found themselves in.”
Challenging generational cycles is something that Cotten has dedicated her life to breaking by overcoming the challenges she was faced with.
“I was placed into foster care at the age of four, and later adopted. I was a teen mom. I experienced homelessness at one point in my life. My birth mother was involved in incarceration. I was involved in a domestic violence situation," Cotten said.
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She’s using her own personal experience and awareness to help support the Middletown community in a unique way.
For years, she did the work of Unashamed from her own home, gathering donations for foster children changing homes teen, single mothers in need and much more. But as of this fall, Unashamed now has its first ever dedicated space for the community to come for help, right on Main Street.
“We’ve done virtual baby showers for teen moms where we’ve literally purchased every item that the teen might need to better support them as they are stepping into parenthood for the first time. For Christmas, we’ve been able to gift families who have experienced incarceration," Cotten said.
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I want families and people, when they come into our doors, to feel loved. I don’t want them to feel ashamed of the circumstances that they’re currently in," she continued.
You can learn more about the wide variety of services offered by Unashamed by clicking here.
