Junail Anderson - Board Member

Freedom from the Streets Co-Founder
Envision Leader

Junail began working with MICAH in December 2018, joining the board in June 2019. She likes a lot of what MICAH is doing, because it reflects what she does with her group. She enjoys her position on the board and values the range of color and experience of the other members, saying, “seems like you can talk to anybody there and they understand you.”

She brings a keen understanding of homelessness to her work, along with an invaluable outlook and her wholehearted desire to spread the truth of the homeless experience. Her first experience helping people came from her time with Welfare Rights. She then helped found Freedom From the Streets.

“Freedom From the Streets is mostly for homeless, formerly homeless, and those on the verge. A lot of people don’t understand folks on the verge. You’re at that edge. It’s like being on a cliff, and anything could push you off.

“As a young girl my family was on the verge. Eating mayo sandwiches and things like that. I’ve been homeless more than ten times, with and without my kids. Now that my kids are older and I don’t have to watch out for them, I feel like I’ve got more free time to put towards helping others, getting out with Freedom From the Streets and spreading the word. I’m proud of having a group in St. Paul, where I was born and raised.

“We need to get out and talk to people and tell their stories. We aren’t getting help here and the understanding of homelessness, how it’s represented, is not the way it really is. There are so many ways to be homeless, to go through that. I’ve seen doctors and lawyers homeless. They have degrees and they are homeless. Anybody could be homeless.”

Do you have anyone who inspires you, that you admire?
“Harriet Tubman. How she moved around and helped people, the displaced, and finding them safety. Sue Watlov Phillips and Pastor Becky of Elim Church. They are good people.”

Personal Touchstone:
“Look at what freedom from the streets means. IT makes me stronger.”
To free yourself from the streets, you have to know about the mind-set which is keeping you entrapped to the streets… - Robyn Travis

How would you like to be remembered?
“Loveable. A gracious person. Good-hearted spirit.”