[originaltext] I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. When my mom temporarily lost h

I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. When my mom temporarily lost herself to mania and when that mania chose me as its primary scapegoat through both emotional and physical abuse, I fled for my safety when I was 16. During my homelessness, I joined Atlanta’s 3,300 homeless youth in feeling uncared for, left out and invisible each night.
    But when I had nothing else, I had the arts, something that didn’t demand material wealth from me in exchange for refuge. A few hours of singing, writing poetry or saving up enough money to disappear into another world at a play kept me going and jolting me back to life when I felt at my lowest.
    Five years later, I started my organization, ChopArt, which is a multidisciplinary arts organization for homeless minors. ChopArt uses the arts as a tool for trauma recovery by taking what we know about building community and restoring dignity and applying that to the creative process. ChopArt is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional programs in Hyderabad, India, and Accra, Ghana, and since our start in 2010, we’ve served over 40,000 teens worldwide. Our teens take refuge in the transformative elements of the arts, and they depend on the safe space ChopArt provides for them to do that. An often invisible population uses the arts to step into their life, but that journey out of invisibility is not an easy one.
    We have a sibling pair, Jeremy and Kelly, who have been with our program for over three years. By using the arts as the entry point, we can heal and build our homeless youth population. We build with Devin, who became homeless with his family when his mom had to choose between medical bills or the rent. He discovered his love of painting through ChopArt. We build with Liz, who has been on the streets most of her teenage years but turns to music to return to herself when her traumas feel too heavy for her young shoulders.
    We build for Maria, who uses poetry to heal after her grandfather died in the van she’s living in with the rest of her family. And so to the youth out there experiencing homelessness, let me tell you, you have the power to build within you. You have a voice through the arts that doesn’t judge what you’ve been through. So never stop fighting to stand in your light because even in your darkest times, we see you.
    Question 16. For what purpose did the speaker leave her home at the age of 16?
    Question 17. What do we learn about ChopArt?
    Question 18. What does the speaker say about the people that ChopArt has helped?