"The system here has failed myself and my babies here in Reno," Treshell Hill, 35, says. "My children are everything and mean the world to me."
It was the pandemic, and Hill, a single mom of four, who was pregnant, decided to quit her job to take care of her kids at home.
She had come to Reno a few years before from Oakland, in 2015, seeking a better life. After having her first kid as a young teenager, her second son's father was murdered when she was six months pregnant.
But then after becoming a victim of domestic abuse in 2021, here in northern Nevada, all the wheels began to fall off for her plans of getting her life onto better tracks.
Domestic violence shelters didn't have room for her family, she says, and then after Child Protective Services opened a case concerning her family, her kids were quickly taken away. Even her youngest, a baby, was removed.
"My youngest son was only six months old. I was breastfeeding. They stopped all of that," she says.
She regained custody for a while, but then lost all her kids again, as her CPS case remained open, and she kept having her life derailed.
"In 2023, I was staying with some friends and a week before I moved into an apartment my boyfriend had in his name, they came and took my kids a week before I moved in," she remembers.
Now, she's trying to get them back into her custody after more starts and stops with CPS to do so, and many more curveballs in her life.
Currently, she meets with her kids once a week at the CPS Family Center (such as in photo above), and is resolute in getting them back full time.
There's also a possibility some of them might be placed to live with her mother in California, but she wants them with herself here in Reno, all together again.
Hill has had jobs and apartments along the way, but hasn't been able to keep these. She's had help such as bus passes and also eviction protection, but not for what she wants the most: to be permanently reunited with her kids who are now 18, 12, nine, seven and three.
The youngest is now with his father, while the others are in foster families, where Hill says their behavior keeps deteriorating.
Her oldest, she says, hasn't been able to finish high school while her daughter cried during her recent birthday because it wasn't spent with her mom and siblings.
Her GoFundMe can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-treshell-hill-reunite-with-her-children
Hill had tried to take the family for a celebration to Coconut Bowl but was told by CPS staff it was too expensive, even though her boyfriend had offered to pay.
"Usually all I do is do my son's hair because I don't have much time with them. So I talk with them, see how it's going," she said of the weekly family meetup.
Outings are possible during her allotted time but only with approval from CPS, she says.
"I also want to spread awareness to this and start my own foundation for women experiencing domestic violence. We should never be re-victimized ever," she says explaining why she reached out to Our Town Reno for this feature article.
Hill also has a GoFundMe for money to start anew when she hopes she'll be reunited with her children. She recently started a new job and is saving up to get her own place, currently making do with a motel room turned into an Airbnb. Previously she stayed at a Motel 6 which she says cost over $2,000 a month.
She's lost everything she kept in storage, including cherished family mementoes, as finances were tight and she couldn’t pay her fees during the period she was jobless.
She has a job again now as a leasing agent, and some stability but now she says she's under threat of having all her parental rights terminated by October.
As studies terribly confirm in such cases, she feels the odds are against her because her family is Black.
"That's what I've been trying to get people to understand," she told Our Town Reno during our interview. "I've really been dealing with this since I was a domestic violence victim. I wasn't a neglectful parent. I'm trying to get into a career path. I don't plan on going to school or anything, but I'm just trying to get my kids back. That's it. And it's like I keep going in the same circles over and over."
CPS doesn't discuss particular cases but in previous interviews with Our Town Reno their leadership indicated their staff does everything it can to get kids reunited with a non-offending parent after cases of domestic violence.
Hill admits she has had setbacks along the way, including drug use when she was stressed, and several legal issues, but that she's fighting charges against her and on the rebound, ready to be a good mother again.
"This has been the most traumatizing experience ever that I've been in," she concluded. She's trying to find a lawyer to help her, but hasn't found one she can afford. "I am almost at my wits end, but I will never give up,” she promised.