Tommy's Story

Last August, when Tommy, 15 years old, and his mother, brother, and sister moved into the Sybil H. Smith Family Village in Mobile, Alabama, he brought one pair of sneakers, one pair of shorts, his baseball cards, and lice. He had just finished 8^th grade–for the second time. The previous year, he had missed 47 days of school–days when he needed to stay home to care for his little brother, 10 years old, and his newborn sister.

Tommy's family moved into the transitional housing for homeless women and children from a trailer in the woods. Their car was a junker; they didn't have clean water; and their mother's battle with substance abuse and poor choices in men had left the family unraveled. After living at the Family Village for a few months, Tommy and his family began to knit their lives back together.

"I'll never forget the day Tommy came in here waving a brown envelope. He was shyly smiling and this kid rarely smiles. He had all A's except one B. I said, 'Tommy, that's great. What happened?' He shrugged his shoulders. He said 'Well, you know, I can study now,'" explained Barbara Johnson, executive director of the Sybil H. Smith Family Village. She continued: "If you don't have running water and you don't have lights, you can't do what you're supposed to do. He has this environment now. His mother? She's walking the straight and narrow. The kids have the opportunity to go to school and excel."

The Family Village, an offshoot of the Dumas Wesley Community Center, opened in July 1999 at a ceremony attended by the mayor, town officials, and staff from the Institutional Ministries area of the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM). In 1999, the GBGM supported the Family Village with a $50,000 grant, which accounts for less than 25 percent of its budget.

The 18-unit apartment building currently serves 17 women and 35 children. Twenty of the children live with their mothers; the other 15 have visitation rights and their mothers are working toward receiving full custody. Located across the street from the Dumas Wesley Community Center in the Crichton area of Mobile, the Family Village is one of 100 national mission institutions related to The United Methodist Church through the General Board of Global Ministries and United Methodist Women.

Restoring Families

The Family Village is the only transitional housing of its kind in the Mobile area. The women and their children can stay for as long as two years. The primary goal for 11 of the 17 women currently in residence is recovery from alcohol and drug abuse. "Their next goal is to move from homelessness and total dependence to total independence and permanent housing," said Ms. Johnson.

"We have also discovered as beautiful as our facility is and as comfortable as our home is that a roof over the head is not the whole answer," said Ms. Johnson. She cited molestation, abuse, and the resulting anger and loss as key issues for the women residents and their children. For these reasons, the Family Village provides therapists, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, job counseling, tutoring, and life skills workshops to help the families get it together. The workshops may include classes on parenting skills, budgeting, resume writing, house cleaning, and dressing for work.

Welfare Reform

Ever since Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, also known as the Welfare Reform Bill, community organizations like the Family Village, have been forced to pick up the safety net dropped by the government. Many community organizations have emphasized the welfare to work component of welfare reform.

At the Family Village, once the women find work, they are required to pay rent based on a sliding scale. Tommy's mother, who works at the local Target store, marks down sales items and earns a little bit more than the minimum wage ($5.15 per hour). The Family Village supplements the family's low income by inviting them to share in the food pantry and helping them receive food stamps. Still, Tommy's mother finds it difficult to lift herself and her three children above the poverty level.

Minimum Wage

The experience of Tommy's mother, struggling to survive on wages just above the minimum, is not unusual for those who leave welfare for work. Less than 24 percent of workers who leave welfare receive enough pay to lift a family of three above the poverty line.

For this reason, the National Council of the Churches of Christ, (NCCC), which advocates for improved public policies, has chosen increasing the minimum wage as one of its five priorities for the current congressional session.

"Many of the working poor are in deep pain because of lack of sufficient income to provide for themselves and their families. We believe, as does a high percentage of the American public, that increasing the minimum wage by $1 over two years would be one of the most compassionate and effective ways of responding to that pain," said Mary Cooper, associate director of the NCCC's Washington office.

In Conclusion

Liz, the mother of a son Tommy's age, was not too long ago in jail for forging checks. Now she lives at the Family Village, where she is recovering from drug addiction and alcoholism. She said of the Family Village: "I feel safe. My son feels safe. And if I do make a mistake or get overwhelmed, I know there's someone there to catch me."

Through the connectional work of the General Board of Global Ministries, the Institutional Ministries area, and family residences like the Sybil H. Smith Family Village, families like Liz's and Tommy's are given a chance to experience safety, healing, and rebirth.

March 7, 2000

| Top | Community and Institutional Ministries | GBGM News | GBGM |