Dretona Maddox is the wife of Pastor Keith Maddox of Grace Apostolic Church, Palm Springs, CA and mother of six (6) children, three boys and three girls (three biological and three adopted). She strives to provide help, hope, and healing to every child living on the streets or away from their families.
She knows by experience the pain that resides in the hearts of children without homes. Dretona was a displaced youth and a living testimony of a broken life… RESTORED through PURPOSE!
“God allowed me to be MOTHERLESS ON PURPOSE, FOR PURPOSE!”
Professionally, Dretona has extensive experience in pediatric nursing. She received advanced training in the care of critically ill and premature newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) from Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. Her professional experiences include caring for medically fragile children with moderate to profound developmental disabilities, critically ill pediatrics with rare conditions, and newborns with severe prematurity. In 2007, Dretona brought these services to her home and is currently serving as a medically fragile foster parent in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
In addition to Dretona’s nursing career, she has gained skills through her training and experience as a MSW with a sub-subspecialty in Community, Organization, Planning, and Administration (COPA). These skills include needs assessments, program planning and implementation, capacity development, coalition building, community mapping, organizing, mobilization and group facilitation. Her combined skills as a RN/MSW are enhanced by a special interest in health disparities experienced by the African American community and her training as a Public Health Nurse.
In 2006, Dretona’s personal experiences motivated her to start her own non-profit organization and Purposely Chosen, Inc. was born! Her mission was to simply provide support services to displaced, runaways, and abandoned youth. Dretona knows what is like to be on the streets with no one to turn to and then to come face to face with the realization that God allowed this ON PURPOSE, FOR PURPOSE!
For more information about Dretona and her testimony, please contact call (760) 322-7600.