India's Story

India is a 2024 Steinbruck Award Honoree

India Frazier’s pride and joy is her 12-year-old grandson. She glows as she talks about him—he’s an A-B student who pushed himself to learn to read. “My grandson saved my life,” she says. “I’m so freaking proud of him. My hope is that I live long enough to see my grandson grow up and be a good man.”

Their bond was sealed when India lost her only daughter 10 years ago to an overdose. “She died in my arms and it crushed me.” Her grandson, just two years old at the time, was with her.

This wasn’t the first time India had lost someone close to her—when she was in her final year of high school, her mother was murdered. She spent a year at Howard before transferring to Virginia Union University. As she struggled with her mother’s death, her budding basketball career slipped away—as shooting guard, she averaged 28 points a game in high school.

The years following her daughter’s death took India down a dark path. “I was the product of an addiction and I put myself in some crazy situations.” She engaged in dangerous activities and, as a result, was incarcerated for two years. Upon her release five years ago, India entered a two-year transitional recovery program at N Street Village.

“I ended up at N Street. It was new and exciting. You had love all around you. You had people who didn’t want to break you down but wanted to build you up, make you want something different in life. That’s what N Street is about, for real.”

When the transitional program ended, India had trouble finding an apartment because of her past incarceration. N Street Village staff found a place for her, and she now lives in one of our permanent supportive housing programs.

“I had to go through an emotional rebuild when I was locked up as well as being here” at N Street Village, she says. “I had to strip myself of certain things. And every day say to myself, ‘I love you. People love you.’ You’ve got to make changes.”

She tells newcomers to N Street Village to come in and be ready to make positive changes. “Because N Street will heal you if you open yourself up to it. You’re someplace that you can really receive the help you need. That’s what I got when I came through the door and went upstairs. And I want to give it to the next person.”