FORMER COCAINE ADDICT HELPS PARENTS RISE ABOVE STRUGGLES LIKE SHE ONCE
FACED

Belinda Knox compares her life to a carton of orange juice. To get
the best out of it, she had to turn it upside down once or twice.

"You know how all that good stuff sits at the bottom, and if you
don't shake it up, it's useless. You can use it, but it doesn't taste
that good," said Knox, 45. "That's how my life has been."

Once homeless, cocaine addicted and isolated from her three children,
Knox, who lives in Lauderhill, now helps other parents turn their
lives around at the Jack and Jill Children's Center in Fort
Lauderdale, a non-profit organization that provides child care and
support for lower-income working families.

Along with behavior analyst Jeanette Martin, Knox leads the same 10-
week family strengthening program that she attended many years ago,
speaking to parents about topics such as positive discipline, stress
management and child development.

"The parents really relate to her. She is so open and honest," Martin
said. "She's been there, but she was able to change her pattern, her
way of thinking and improve her relationship with her children."

Knox said her children, now 16, 17 and 18, don't talk much about
their early years. But they know their mother's message to struggling
parents is rooted in her own experiences.

Rising from life as a drug dealer in Clewiston to her current job as
a social worker aide for the Broward County Elderly and Veterans
Services Division, Knox has accumulated plenty of practical advice to
give to others who are just beginning their journey.

"I tell them, 'Don't be afraid to ask for help. Don't be ashamed of
where you are, because you are not going to be in that place
forever,'" she said.

At first, Knox rejected offers of help.

Though her children were in foster care, removed when her third baby
was born "dirty" with cocaine, she cared only about her next high.
One day Knox began to believe her children's caseworker, who insisted
she could do better.

In 1991, with the help of a rehabilitation center in Avon Park, she
kicked the drug habit and began grabbing the lifelines thrown to her
by government programs and halfway homes. She also began to pray.

By the time she regained custody of her children in 1993, she was
eager to learn all that she could at the Jack and Jill Center.

"They didn't judge me; all they wanted to do was help me," she said.

Knox continues moving forward. She has returned to school, pursuing a
bachelor's degree in business at the University of Phoenix, an online
college. She will apply that new knowledge to her position as CEO of
Women 2 Women, a faith-based, non-profit organization focused on
"empowering women of all ages and from all walks of life," Knox said.