Beacon of hope: Organization opening home for young mothers

Fear, anxiety, despondency — leaders in the Angelcare organization have seen the turbulence young women experience when facing an unexpected pregnancy.

The nonprofit regularly works with women who have been kicked out of their homes, left by their partners or disowned by their parents. Alone and scared, they come to Angelcare needing help in the most difficult time of her life.

“When a young lady faces an unplanned pregnancy, she can fall victim to so many different things: abuse, drugs, homelessness in some cases,” said Yadi Garcia, Angelcare president. “We’re here to help restore her. Yes, we all want to save the babies, but we cannot leave the mother behind.”

In the coming months, Angelcare hopes to provide a beacon for those women mired in darkness. Construction is nearly complete on the Angelcare House, a facility where mothers facing a crisis pregnancy can be housed, get counseling, continue their education and learn meaningful life and parenting skills.

To show off the new facility, Angelcare is hosting a “come-and-see” event, where people can tour the house from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

The journey to opening the home has been a long and tedious one. But with the hope to open in the spring, organizers and supporters are excited for the opportunity to help mothers and babies thrive.

“The idea is to save two lives — the life of the baby and the life of the mother,” Garcia said. “By helping these young women with support, social services and counseling services, helping them map out a plan, we can help them, whether they choose to raise the baby or put the baby up for adoption.”

Residents are referred to Angelcare by social service agencies, hospitals, churches, schools and other partners, Garcia said.

Social workers provide counseling for residents who need it. Women take parenting classes, receive prenatal care in addition to post-partum care. They also learn life skills such as loading a dishwasher and doing laundry.

“They’ll learn everyday skills that we might take for granted,” Garcia said. “The goal of Angelcare is to help these young moms prepare for a successful life and a bright future.”

Angelcare was the vision of Rita Norwood, a Greenwood resident who had worked throughout her life as a nurse, a nursing instructor, a counselor and leader of women’s ministries.

She had seen that when young, unwed women become pregnant unexpectedly, they often lose the support of the families and friends. The women end up facing the physical and emotional challenges of pregnancy alone.

“This vacuum creates a breeding ground for all kinds of social problems, such as poverty, abuse, neglect and substance abuse,” Norwood said in a statement before her death in 2016.

She started working on Angelcare in 2000. Her idea was to create a large group home that would provide stability, necessities, health needs and a nurturing home, which would be free of charge for young women facing a crisis pregnancy.

Norwood shared her vision throughout the community, finding supporters in area health care organizations, churches and other groups. To learn the best approach to setting up the home, she visited similar group homes for pregnant teens in Marion County; Springfield, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio and various cities in Texas.

They purchased a property in Trafalgar, and designed a facility that could accommodate up to 12 young women, as well as two live-in housemothers. Numerous fundraisers, donation drives and pledged support from community partners helped Angelcare raise money for the home without incurring any debt.

Though Norwood died before her dream could become a reality, those who believed in her vision carried it on, now to the verge of completion.

The 9,000-square-foot home will feature four dorm rooms, each one able to accommodate three young women. The rooms have their own bathrooms and ample closet space.

Downstairs, a fully equipped kitchen, with refrigerators, microwaves, ovens and other appliances donated by the Greenwood Rotary Club, opens up to a spacious gathering area that will serve as a “community room.”

“They can fellowship, play games. We want them to commune together in this area,” Garcia said.

In the basement, residents of the home will take classes, work with counselors and just relax. Two separate apartments, with their own entrances, will house the “housemothers,” paid Angelcare employees who will watch over residents and provide assistance if they need it.

One of the greatest challenges for Angelcare organizers was learning that state regulations required the home have an elevator. Faced with a $60,000 unexpected expense, construction grinded to a halt.

But Grace Assembly of God, a church in New Whiteland, stepped forward to do a fundraising campaign to cover the cost of the elevator.

“Our church has been a financial supporter of Angelcare from the beginning. Our church regularly addresses the issue of being ‘pro-life,’ that life begins at conception and that our responsibility is to serve both babies and their mothers,” Wayne Murray, lead pastor at Grace Assembly of God, said in an email. “Angelcare has a strong vision for this. Last year, our church family enthusiastically gave funds needed to install an elevator in the Angelcare home.”

Contractors are waiting for the delivery of the elevator before it can be installed, and workers are finishing up a few other small projects in the house: paving the parking lot out front, landscaping around the house and providing furnishings and equipment.

The hope is to be able to open fully next spring, Garcia said.

With construction nearly completed, the next challenge is raising enough to cover the operational costs of the home, she said. Officials estimate the monthly budget to run the Angelcare House will be $15,000, including the salaries for the housemothers and house director, as well as to pay for services provided to residents. The organization is reaching out to individuals, businesses and churches that can pledge funding to keep the facility running.

Generating that money is daunting. But Angelcare has overcome much to get to this point, and is poised to clear this hurdle as well.

“Building the house is the easy part. In order for us to be open in the spring, we need to be able to secure monthly funding,” Garcia said. “But there’s excitement. It ignites my hope, and we’re excited to see it to fruition.”