Community Care Network opens home for women, children in Ocean Springs

Community Care Network 1.JPG Community Care Network Executive Director Diane Easley stands in front of Sue's Home, the organization's new transitional home for women and children in Ocean Springs on Nov. 5, 2012. (April Havens/ahavens@al.com) 

OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi - Almost 10 years after the Community Care Network began offering transitional housing to women and children, the local faith-based organization finally has a home to call its own.

The first home, opened in 2003, was a 1,000-square-foot rental with three bedrooms in Gautier. Since then, the home has been housed in two other rentals, one in Pascagoula and one in Ocean Springs.

"Our board of directors decided to step out on faith and borrow money," Executive Director Diana Easley said.

The 8-bedroom, 5- bathroom home is on 3 acres and includes a caretaker's cottage, which has not yet been renovated.

"We have a new roof, and we have a new everything," Easley said. "It's been amazing. Every time we wonder how we're going to handle such-and-such, a call comes in."

The house, purchased in February 2011, has been touched by hundreds of hands.

"I've watched God operate in this house and put it together," she said. "It's been a growing experience for me."

Community Care Network 2.JPG Rhonda Lewis, 36, reads her daily devotion Nov. 5, 2012, inside her room at Sue's Home, the Community Care Network's new transitional home for women and children. Lewis said she loves her room, which is comfortable and "homey." (April Havens/ahavens@al.com) 

Blossman Gas donated all the home's appliances, and Turf Masters donated time and landscaping materials.

Daltile donated enough ceramic tiles to floor the 5,000-square-foot home, and the volunteer fire department delivered it. Then the men from Lemoyne Boulevard Baptist Church donated the time to install it.

Blessings Bible Study in Gulfport provided furniture and decorations to make the house feel like a home, and other organizations and churches adopted bedrooms to decorate.

On the front door, a sign welcomes residents to Sue's Home, which was named to honor the first home manager, Susan Gray.

"We have prayed for you!" it says. "Make yourself at home. We are glad you chose to be a part of our family."

Easley, originally a nurse, was inspired to start the nonprofit after working with women while director of the Home of Grace women's center and after teaching classes at local prisons.

The first clients were women that Easley met while teaching at the Harrison County Adult Detention Center.

Community Care Network 3.JPG Community Care Network Executive Director Diane Easley, right, and resident Rhonda Lewis, left, try out the new kitchen in Sue's Home, the organization's transitional home for women and children, on Nov. 5, 2012. Everything in the kitchen was donated, Easley said. (April Havens/ahavens@al.com) 

"We worked with one woman to get her children back," Easley said. "They were with us when the hurricane hit, and our home was damaged so we had to move into the house with them. "

Easley said she and her husband, Wallace, became as close as family with the woman and her children, who were traumatized from the storm.

They still keep in touch with the woman, who lives out of state and is a pipeline supervisor.

"She just doing wonderfully," Easley said with a wide grin.

Another woman, she said, got a GED while in jail, later graduated from the community college with honors and now works at Chevron Corp.

"A lot of these women just need someone to believe in them," Easley said. "About 80 percent of them come from abusive childhoods, so they're convinced from a young age that they'll never be anything."

Inside the home last week, the home's first resident, Rhonda Lewis, 36, sat nervously at the kitchen table and told the story of how she arrived there.

"I started drinking at the age of 13, mainly on weekends while smoking weed," the Mobile native said. "I didn't become an alcoholic until 18 or 19, when I started going to clubs and drinking every day."

By 21, she was smoking crack. By 23, she was homeless.

Community Care Network 4.JPG This welcoming sign greets residents of Sue's Home, the transitional home for women and children that was recently opened in Ocean Springs by the Community Care Network. (April Havens/ahavens@al.com) 

Over the next several years, she bounced around shelters and government housing. She was sent to treatment for the first time in February 2004, she said, after her two children were taken by the Department of Human Resources.

She relapsed the first time less than 5 months later. She went back to rehab, but got kicked out, so she moved in with her sister until she found Section 8 housing.

"But then I started letting drug dealers and smokers in my house," she said, large tears filling her eyes.

Just then, Easley reached out to offer a supportive embrace.

"You never, ever have to go back there," she whispered to Lewis. "Never."

Looking slightly embarrassed but relieved, Lewis continued to recall how an abusive boyfriend beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital, then at the Penelope House domestic violence center.

Penelope House arranged for her to go to the Home of Grace for Women in Eight Mile, Ala., where she went through treatment and waited for months until Sue's Home was ready for her.

"I was so ready to get here," she said. "I'm glad that I'm here because I feel at home. My hope is to get closer to God, to get a good job and learn more."

More than a home, Community Care Network offers women job placement assistance, classes, therapy, life skills training and a sense of accountability, as the facility has strict rules, a long list of chores and drug testing.

The staff also assists women in regaining custody of their children and provides support services for the children, including tutoring.

This week, 3 more women and 5 children will settle in, Easley said, and the house will likely be filled up within 2 weeks.

For Lewis, who misses her 12- and 13-year-old children, the youngsters will be a welcome addition.

"I'm really looking forward to having kids around again," she said with a smile. "This is an awesome place."

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