When Gillian Sirles came to the Remount Foundation nine years ago, she had survived multiple suicide attempts.

Sitting on a picnic table outside the horse stables at the Air Force Academy, Sirles recounts her story of survival.

Decades earlier, the Navy welder was discharged for alcohol use, an attempt to push down past trauma. In the years following, she struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism, eventually turning to sex work for money.

“I lost my family, I lost my job, I lost everything because of it, and I ended up homeless,” Sirles said, remembering how she would rummage through trash cans on South Nevada Avenue in search of food. “I had wanted to give up a lot. I cut my wrist. I tried every type of suicide there could be, and just, it never took.”

In 1993, Sirles was gang rape

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