Listen to the first Front Porch Productions podcast featuring the staff of Reach of Cherokee County Inc. at cherokeescout.com.
Cecilia Crawford-Faulkner
Her outer office exposes clutter with stacked boxes of supplies, health and beauty products and non-perishable food goods narrowing the passage to her inner office. This loosely organized clutter becomes a fitting mirror for Cecilia Crawford-Faulkner’s personal office, which is stacked with burgeoning file folders and bright pink post-it notes peppering her office like confetti.
As the executive director of Reach of Cherokee County Inc. in Murphy, Crawford-Faulkner laughs about the mess.
“Yeah, we’re pretty busy here,” she said, comfortable with understatement.
Her personal journey to this position is riddled with domestic violence and sexual assault, but call her a victim and she’ll wave you away. “I’m no victim,” she said slowly in her Southern drawl, “I am a survivor.”
Crawford-Faulkner survived a pretty gruesome childhood, which included ongoing sexual assault culminating in pregnancy at page 13. But she determined to overcome the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention statistics that show only 50 percent of teenage mothers graduate high school across the nation.
Walking across that stage with a baby on her hip proved to be the easy part of her journey. Later, she would graduate from college, which fueled her ambition enough to earn a master’s degree in entrepreneurship, using her education for many years with the Tri-County Community College Small Business Center. But her own personal experiences called her to a job she considers her vocation.
Crawford-Faulkner braved her own dreadful childhood in silence. Reach exists to assist victims of domestic violence and sexual assault but was only established in 1999, too late to protect her. So her gambit to leave a much-loved and successful career at the Business Center rooted itself in her desire to help victims become
survivors.
“This is my calling,” she said.
Crawford-Faulkner oversees the rich assortment of programs and victim advocacy as the boss with Reach. She feels a sense of justice within her new position.
“I didn’t have a voice [in childhood],” she said, “and I know what that’s like.”
The little boy she raised as a child herself grew up to marry another Reach employee, Tiffany Crawford, who is hard to miss as she manages the Reach Thrift Shop. Her tiny frame belies her giant personality. Her energetic, “Hello! How are you?” greets every customer who walks in the door.
The thrift shop’s purpose it to help fund Reach’s numerous programs, including a 24-hour shelter for those suffering from domestic violence or sexual abuse, assistance for drug abuse and even a food pantry for Cherokee County’s hungry. Crawford finds purpose in serving the community of shoppers and donators who cross her door with surprising frequency.
“I meet so many people every day from all walks of life,” she said.
She’s proud of her work in the shop, moving around as she talks, busy with the tasks of her job. But even with her quick actions, she remains intensely focused on her conversation, and it becomes impossible to dismiss her eager, almost childlike eagerness as inauthentic. Like her mother-in-law at home but boss at work, Crawford slipped into the role of manager like a welcoming a cherished friend.
“I was a drug addict for 20 years,” she said. She was introduced to alcohol by a school chum’s parents who “thought it would be funny to watch two 12-year-olds get drunk.”
Unfortunately, Crawford suffers from an addictive personality, and this good bit of “fun” cost her decades of loss through addiction. She easily graduated from alcohol to pills, finally ending in the sadly predictable embrace of a methamphetamine addiction.
Crawford weighed 89 pounds when she finally got clean. Her addiction even caused her to spend a few days homeless with her 8-month-old baby living under the bridge in Andrews.
“My dad took me in when he found out,” she said.
Despite the distance from her hardship past, the effects of her protracted addiction are on full display when she smiles. Her front teeth are cracked and chipped.
“That’s from drug abuse,” she said.
By now, she has been clean longer than she used, and she puts her experience to good use at Reach.
“I get to love on everybody!” she said. “Not just the homeless or the ones with cancer or the drug addicts. I love on everybody.”
Crawford said strangers come in and ask her to pray for them, something she considers an honor. Her place in this shop, full of rejected trash that transforms itself into chosen treasures, reflects her own journey from a discarded drug addict to a respected member of her community.
Crawford hides her smile with her hand when discussing her achievements, but her teeth will get a second chance as well. She said her broken teeth prohibit her from eating one of her favorite treats. In the coming months, Crawford will be fitted for new, movie-star teeth.
“I will finally get to eat ice cream,” she said with an unfettered smile.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse or sexual assault, you can call Reach’s 24-hour anonymous hotline at 828-837-8064; or Stephanie Swanson, victim advocacy program director with the sheriff’s office, at 828-837-2589.
Abigail Hickman is a special correspondent for the Cherokee Scout. Email her at savvygirlsavvygirl@gmail.com or leave a message in the office at 837-5122.