Credit: ABC Action News

A nonprofit in Pinellas County, Florida promoted what seemed like an unlikely person to a leadership position earlier this year.

Those who promoted Jonita Lewis say she is perfect for the job. “If you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know where you’re going” are words Lewis lives by.

“If somebody would’ve told me this 12 years ago that I would be in this position, I wouldn’t have believed them. Me? No. Never,” said Lewis.

12 years ago, with a daughter just six months old and another on the way, Lewis says she had reached rock bottom.

“Just the thought of me being homeless, I just felt like a failure – not only for myself but for my kids,” said Lewis.

She accepted shelter from the RCS Grace House. Lewis got back on her feet and eventually went back to college.

“I was actually evaluating Jonita and she had no idea for two years,” said RCS CEO Kirk Ray Smith. Smith was one of Jonita’s professors. “As soon as she graduated, I offered her a full-time job at RCS.”

“I was like, ‘Wow, well I was a participant of your program years back,'” said Lewis.

She’s now the community resource director for RCS. She works to distribute help to people who really need it – people she can relate to.

“So it’s not like, ‘You don’t know. You’ve never walked in my shoes’. I have. I’ve been there. I’ve been homeless and without a roof over my head,” said Lewis.

“You can’t teach that. You can’t train that. You can’t develop that. That has to be innate,” said Smith.

“If you’re able to help one person, that’s a win. That’s a win here,” said Lewis.