The Presbyterian Home for Children’s partnership with the Synod of Living Waters is helping the Home expand its reach, especially to moms and kids needing a fresh start together.

Long part of the fabric of Alabama, the Talladega organization is now building relationships with presbyteries and congregations in Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Since the covenant with the Synod was approved last year, Doug Marshall, President; and Cindy Fisher, Director of Communication; have been on the road even more than usual. They’re speaking at churches, presbytery meetings, Presbyterian Women retreats and more.

Many Presbyterians in neighboring states weren’t familiar with the Home’s work, Marshall said. Nevertheless, the Home’s leaders have been just as warmly received as they are in Alabama. Fisher, herself a domestic violence survivor, has also been able to share her story.

“We were so welcomed,” Marshall said. “These presbyteries and churches are very mission focused like our Alabama presbyteries. We’ve been building relationships and planting a lot of seeds.”

A safe place to land

The partnership with the Synod of Living Waters is helping the Home’s core program, Secure Dwellings, reach and support even more women and children in need of transitional housing. The program provides safe, affordable housing on its historic campus to homeless children and their female caregivers for up to two years.

“The women are empowered to achieve self-sufficiency. Kids are able to grow, learn, play, rest and just be kids. Background checks are completed to help keep everyone safe,” Marshall said.

The recent renovation of two cottages doubled the program’s capacity. The expansion of its reach also allows the Home to serve moms in nearby Mississippi and Tennessee as well; previously, it served moms only within the state of Alabama.

Wherever they come from, the women bring a variety of needs and circumstances along with their children.

“A lot of our moms come to us that didn’t have good moms to learn from,” Fisher said, and being homeless can mean many things. “A lot of people think of ‘homeless’ as living under a bridge,” when it could just as easily be on a friend’s couch.

Tara, for example, “came to us with two little bitties,” Fisher said — an infant and a toddler. Both children’s fathers had untreated drug problems.

Tara had been trying to bunk with different relatives, but at the Presbyterian Home for Children she and her children had their own apartment rather than just a couch. The staff helped her find a job and transportation, and her young children were cared for.

Another mother, Temika, had a small son and was pregnant with twin girls when her husband died in a car crash.

She was able to keep going for a time, but when the twins became ill, Temika missed so much work that she lost her job, then her apartment.

The family lived in their Chevy Trailblazer for a couple of months, Fisher said. “She talks about the parking lots she would choose to stay in,” and the people she feared would knock on her window if she didn’t keep watch. “Temika would stay up all night.”

In the spring, they moved out of their car and into an apartment at the Presbyterian Home for Children.

At the Home’s Fall Festival, Temika’s son dressed up like Spider-Man.

“I went up to him and I said, ‘Hey, Spider-Man,’” Marshall recalled. “He looked at me and he said, ‘I’m here to protect the city.’”

A chance to breathe

Fisher, who herself was once homeless along with her children, knows how quickly things can change. Often all it takes is leaving an abusive relationship, losing a job or facing illness to deplete someone’s resources.

“We actually went four months without anywhere to be and ended up in a really bad apartment,” she said.

By not only providing basic needs but also teaching mothers to sustain themselves, the Home lets them envision a life they may never have thought possible.

“We’re allowing the moms to dream,” Fisher said. “It’s hard for them to do that when all they’re thinking about is survival. We help them get the basics and get back on their feet so they’re not fearful. Then they can say, do I want to go back to school?”

Moms are also required to give back, she said. “They participate in food and clothing drives throughout Talladega. That’s one of Temika’s favorite things. She’s out there helping load cars with boxes of food.

“Now Temika can breathe.”