So crazy to remember & think about going thru all of this as a teenager.
The BADD organization in LOS Angeles California.
there were some good times for sure,
But most of it was pretty messed up.
So long ago..
But I remember it all like it was yesterday.
Being put into a full Nelson & slammed on the ground & sat on by someone 3 times my size, for rolling my eyes at an “overseer”
& My nose & mouth bleeding.
Having to Seeing that one young girl get her arm broken by an overseer.
Being forced to do such intense workouts that I could hardly walk for a week afterwards cuz I tore so many muscles in my legs.
Tryin to kill Myself & not succeeding & being laughed at.
Writing letters home & having to erase anything “bad” & not being able to tell my family what was really happening.
Walking in single file lines with our heads down at all times, Wearing black uniforms evey day.
Couldn’t make eye contact with anyone, or even really speak to eachother.
Triple stack bunk beds, In a tiny living space, with a foot of space between them,
2 minutes showers.
Diggin 8by8 pits in the Victorville high desert,
Living in double wide trailers, No electricity, no running water,
Hang washing & hang drying our clothes.
Running obstacle courses eveyday in the desert sand & heat.
Scraping the black off the bottoms of pots & pans with the desert sand with my bare hands till they were bloody.
Writing “lines/bible verses” a thousand times “to obey is better than sacrifice,to heed is better than the fat of rams” & ten thousand word essays.
Memorizing our “30s,60s & 90s” scriptures
Being told by the directors wife that I was possessed by a demon & had demons in my eyes & needed to have them “cast out of me”
Eating beans & rice &”Jesus Christ”
Reflecting on a horrifying experience from my teenage years at B.A.D.D, Born Again Delivered Disciples. At just 14, I endured unimaginable torment – isolated in a closet for over a week, restricted to minimal bathroom breaks and brief, intense exercise sessions, all for speaking out against an authority figure. I was going insane that I even pulled out each hair of my eyebrows and eye lashes. I'll never forget the terror of being pinned down by wannabe recovering addicts while struggling to breathe. Even now, nearly 22 years later, the trauma lingers, haunting my dreams and crippling me in confined spaces. My parents, misled by promises of reform, are burdened with remorse for subjecting me to such horrors. Trapped for a year in an environment rife with abuse and neglect, my memories remain etched in pain. The Dream Center in Echo Park, where we were relocated to Pomona because a teen boy died from injuries, only intensified the nightmare, culminating in tragedy and abandonment. I mourn the loss of innocence and solidarity with the girls who endured alongside me, hoping they've found solace in a brighter future.
I agree with people who said that they have been to this place and have been traumatized I have also been to this place and have been traumatized and watch them abused kids and drag them and put you in full Nelson and leave marks on your neck and bruises all their body and kick you and physically and mentally abuse you
Review from Guidestar
I agree with the one star review. This place traumatized and abused me. In no way shape or form should this place be open or considered a safe place for teens let alone a church. I was also a teen placed in this facility in the 2000s. They were located in the middle of no where around Victorville California where they would drive up a hidden rode to trailer homes in the middle of the desert. This place had absolutely no electricity and they used camping lanterns the entire time. Showers were located outside in the freezing cold where you would shower with other teens with no real covering. Food was watered down and molded. To this day I can’t eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because of how much actual water they mixed into the jelly and peanut butter and at times be put into a tortilla if molded bread was out. A teen once told one of the abusers (Teacher) I wanted to run away and I was jumped by them getting put in a sleeper hold. The next day I was forced to do hard labor. That means I had to dig a 10x10 hole in the middle of the deserts. Sounds creepy? Yeah it was. I can attest to them destroying our letters and re writing them to pretend like we were happy. I got injured and was ignored so I wouldn’t let anyone know what happened. This place should be closed and everyone thrown in jail including the owner who runs it because he was the one created it and was fully aware of everything going on and telling the abusers to do what they had to.
BADD aka BORN AGAINST DELIVERED DISCIPLES...this facility abused and traumatized many children including me. I was 16 when I was placed in this program. It’s a program that is Christian based. While there one of the over seers broke a 14 year olds arm and refused to take her to the hospital. Another girl was put in a closet for a week and mentally broke down she is mentally ill now. They put kids in full Nelson’s and planted seeds of fear with brim stone and hell fire. This facility should NEVER AND I REPEAT NEVER look after children. Emotionally scarred for life. Legalistic religious thinking and brutality towards little kids regardless if they are rebellious will never be okay that’s how u destroy a kid not help them. Terrible people to be over looking youngsters. Very ignorant. It was actually my probation officer that investigated them after finding out they would rip our letters apart and force us to rewrite them to our parents. They also physically verbally and emotionally abused these kids. I could write a book about this organization. Terrible experience as a child. Scary as a child. Felt very afraid alone and the kids would turn on one another because of the prison type mentality these people treated the kids like. Not a loving Christ like environment. Quite honestly I’m turned off towards religion because of this place. They paraded us kids around like a project and prison inmates. They had us living in an old hospital with bars on the windows and we didn’t go outside or play. This was a living hell on earth for a pre teen or teenager for 2 years. My parents still have remorse for sending me there to this day because of the trauma. U know what’s scarier than the Devil? Ignorance.
Review from Guidestar
Lost my Dad in 1989 to drunk driver and it's great to see organizations like BADD out there trying to get the word out. As a biker it's important to make it know in this social group.
I have ridden many years but now am clean and sober for eleven years and nothing saddens me more than to see drunk drivers on the same road as fellow bikers!! Everyone helps in this battle.
I am a fellow rider and am a ride captain for the Red Knights Motorcycle Club in Illinois. I think it's great that there is an organization stepping forward to combat drunk drivers. Keep up the great work!
This organization has helped so many people! Every member deserves to be put up on a pedestal...for going above and beyond!!
I am a safety officer for two touring chapters in north east pa and love what you guys at B.A.D.D. do for us bikers THANK YOU