What is happening with Alpha House, transitional home for women in Tennessee?

Unfortunately, Alpha House is currently closed due to lack of funding. Efforts are being made to reopen. A new board of directors is in place. We will report as good news emerges. August 26, 2016

Like fledglings from the nest, transition to a straight life is not easy.Wings must become strong and directions clear. Alpha House does its part for women coming out of incarceration.

 Each resident tells her personal story to all on the day she 

graduates and returns to living on her own.

Support from volunteers, friends, family and others with loving hearts

 is apparent at each graduation event.

A post in the blog dated 9/8/2013 contained this line:  Alpha House is now closed and the current residents will be the last.  Without increased and regular funding, this will be the last year.  That statement was totally true and for a while work to secure funding mixed with faith and prayers for effective efforts was in itself a work of faith with no assurances of the future.  The home was given up to its owner and the search for a new home was in earnest.

A new nest was needed and was found. 

 Families are reunited with a new hope for the future

 Love flows in abundance

As of January 2013 there is an new residence for Alpha House. A smaller house was located, freshened  and fixed up to suit the needs of a group home.  At this time, the chain of assistance to ladies in transition from incarceration has not been broken during the trying transition from one home to finding and occupying the new one.  Women in the program graduated as fledglings from the nest into their own lives again.  One lady would not complete the program until January 12, 2013 and special living and learning arrangements were provided for her.  I attended her send-off, graduation, celebration of accomplishment at the new residence and also met the first lady to begin the program at the new home.  One fledgling has left the nest and a resident is now moved in, learning the social, everyday life business and work skills needed to adapt to a new straight life. When she flies the nest, we pray she will make it.  Currently there is room for 3 more residents and those spots will likely be filled soon.  

DONATIONS
Alpha house is looking for regular and committed monthly donations from individuals.  They truly need commitment from business and organizations in larger amounts.  Support of this faith based transitional home is an ongoing effort and a base of dependable support is needed to avoid the crash experienced last fall.  The idea is not just to exist but to grow in service to ladies coming from the jails and prisons in transitional time.  I cannot speak for the board of Alpha House or for those running the operation daily. However, I do believe they are willing to speak with anyone who holds a key to improved funding.

Contact and Words from Graduates   Read what a few women who have completed the program have to say, straight from their hearts.

Alpha House Website 

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I speak my own words and experiences and in no way am an official spokesperson for Alpha House, the faith based transitionalhome in Tennessee.  This blog post is written to educate, inform and hopefully bring financial and prayerful support to the program.  

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FLEDGLINGS IN A STRAIGHT LIFE..transitional home for women needs funding to help residents learn to fly a new, meaningful path

Many people out of jail must return to the environment from where they came and will not have enough support to hold out and make it.  Some will make it and be fine parents to their children.  All out of jail deserve at lease a chance to go right and stay that way.

No person should be considered disposable.Certainly the ladies at Alpha House are not. God love them..God Bless them, they all have touched my heart and blessed me. That is why I have referred to them as "jailbirds" in an affectionate way with nothing disparaging about its honesty. Today, I will stop using that term publicly and apologize for any who were possibly offended. These ladies have a
piece of life history which happens to be public record of incarceration. Is that bit of history going to shade their lives from now on?  Yes, consequences are to be paid and life experience will shape the approach to life and "how to's" of survival and handling relationships.  Costs are often higher than the "rest of us" can imagine or honestly handle.  Yet, many of the ladies do make it past that anchor of the past and move on to establish straight and productive lives.  There is no better spokesperson about the need for deep healing the entire person and environment than these ladies who have been there, who have been in a darkness the fortunate ones will have difficulty imagining. 

The affectionate term I will now use is fledglings, young birds just free of the nest and ready to apply survival skills they have learned and are learning daily.  Flight will be a tumble at first but soon will carry the distance, with a jumbled landing now and then but better each day.  The path for any fledgling is growth and maturity in a new life.

 

The women in the Alpha House transitional home come for the most part fresh out of jail and facing long probation. They can gain credit for time in the transitional home and it sure beats other options.  They are not free but have a taste of it, living in a nice home with a bedroom to share with a roommate and call “their place”.  They have a place to exercise and stay fit, a place to have life skills training such as how to use computers…a place to regain or learn afresh self-image, social skills and confidence.

 A block party earlier in 2012 featured a Christian band.  

Those at the party understood the need for helping others get back on their path.

Alpha House is a Christian faith based facility and is a place the women may find faith in our Creator, discover they are God’s children and become sisters of Jesus Christ.  This faith is a powerful sustaining force in helping the ladies develop a new outlook on living in the world and in living with strength and peace in recognition of their own fallen past years.

The website for Tennessee Offender Reentry list various organizations set up to help felons and other offenders in transition to a new and straight life.  http://www.tnoffenderreentry.com/housing-transitional/

You will see Alpha House in Oliver Springs among the listings.

A new smaller residence is open and active as of January, 2013.,
Oliver Springs, TN 37840
865-435-3399
http://www.alphahouseinc.net
Fee: None

 Alpha House needs to exist!  The ladies running it need strength and lots of endurance through this time. Pray for wisdom, pray for donations, help as you personally are able.

The list of organizations set up to help offenders in Tennessee is impressive but a critical aspect of it does not show:  Who pays for it !    Government grants are often not workable in the faith based transitional home like Alpha House. Funding from other sources and maintenance of that funding is difficult. As this blog post was  written during September 2012, edited on December 29 and clarified with a new post on January 17, 2013 to reflect new positive developments, the staff and volunteers of Alpha House are seeking grants and contacting churches and organizations in effort to gain regular monthly funding. Without a substantial increase in funding, the future is not rosy even with a new home being prepared for new residents.

The power point slide show which was here to tell the situation and hopefully draw some interests in funding for Alpha House is no longer relevant and is deleted.  While the slide show was available, a pleasing number of downloads were made and it did reach an audience.