First Posted: 3/23/2015
LIMA — Despite a lack of grant funding, one local nonprofit is expanding its service to help more women.
Truth For Youth, a local nonprofit organization that runs Guiding Light in Lima, is planning to open a life coaching and residential center for women April 25.
“We’re partnering with local agencies to make sure some of the gaps in our housing needs are being met,” said Julianne Frankhouser, executive director of Truth for Youth.
The house, called Resting Place, is completely funded by community contributions, Frankhouser said, as there’s no grant funding for what the organization does.
The house is meant to serve adult women and teenage girls, hopefully helping to fill part of the void left when Safe Harbor, a youth shelter, closed its doors in December, Frankhouser said.
Located at 600 S. Elizabeth St., the home has three bedrooms and can serve five women at a time. It will be staffed with volunteers around the clock and can be used for emergency shelter or a long-term stay.
During their stay, residents will get clothing, education and life skills. The program is meant to prepare women with skills so they can become self-sufficient and “have a better chance of maintaining stability” in their lives, Frankhouser said.
“What we’re seeing in society today is the fact that many of our underserved population don’t have the training of how to manage a household, how to pay bills, how to care for children,” Frankhouser said. “If a person does not grow up with that education, they’re already set up to fail.”
The program will also offer information on how individuals can use the resources available to support them in the community if they can’t support themselves, Frankhouser said.
“We are full and rich of resources in our community,” she said. “It’s just people don’t know where to go or how to access them.”
Truth for Youth bought the house on Elizabeth Street for $30,000 on March 12, and is calling it a “transition home,” Frankhouser said.
The house is fully remodeled and was a great price, Frankhouser said, it was also just a block from Guiding Light, Truth for Youth’s residential program for pregnant teens, located at 592 S. Main St.
The transition home has been part of the nonprofit’s plans since it opened Guiding Light in 2013, she said.
Length of stay is based on the individual, but the average stay for Guiding Light and Resting Place is four months, Frankhouser said.
The organization has made “great progress” with Guiding Light, and felt like it needed to open Resting Place.
“We just know that what we do works,” Frankhouser said. “We are just trying to help as much as we can.”
