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PUTTING IT INTO ACTION: Ivy's Story
At 41, Ivy Gordon radiates determination, energy, and a quiet confidence shaped by a lifetime of navigating instability. Growing up with parents battling addiction meant constant moves — six schools, two households, and very little structure. When Ivy was 9, her father got sober, becoming her first real example of resilience. He went on to create a treatment center, where she worked alongside him, sparking her own passion for helping people facing homelessness and addiction. That early experience eventually led to her current career as a Care Navigator and Shelter Monitor.
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Ivy became a mother at a young age and built a family through two marriages, raising three children: Iasis (23), Jason (19), and Lyrikal (14). But the last few years brought a cascade of heartbreak. She lost her father — her best friend — to cancer. In the same year, her husband of more than two decades was diagnosed with early‑onset Alzheimer’s and severe epilepsy. Then she had 2 major kidney surgeries.
She made the hardest choice
She was prescribed pain medication, and under the weight of grief, stress, and false accusations of drug addiction from her husband, Ivy, for the first time in her life, she began to abuse the medication.
Determined not to lose herself, Ivy made the hardest choice she’d ever faced: she left her marriage, entered a detox center, and committed to staying clean through Cocaine Anonymous and steady work. Jason stayed with her sister while Ivy lived out of her car and worked.
Encouragement from a former AFC resident
A former Anacortes Family Center (AFC) resident encouraged her to seek temporary housing and life‑skills support. When Ivy arrived at AFC, she was employed full‑time and deeply motivated, but she needed tools she’d never been taught. In just 60 days, AFC staff helped her learn to save money, repair her credit, and navigate rental applications. Those simple but essential skills opened a door she had been pushing on for years.
Today, Ivy and Jason share a two‑bedroom apartment in Mount Vernon and are building a stable life together. She credits AFC — and the kindness, support, and knowledge of its staff — with giving her the breathing room and guidance she needed to move forward.
“I just needed someone to show me how to get a decent apartment,” she says. “Now Jason and I have a home, and we’re finally standing on solid ground.”