NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — By next year, one area of Nashville should be home to more than a dozen women looking to reintegrate themselves into society after overcoming some of life's most difficult circumstances.

The Tennessee Prison Outreach Ministry is hoping to break ground on a brand new women's "step-down" facility, offering women exiting circumstances such as addiction or incarceration.

According to Mary McCrary, the Development and Recruitment Specialist, with TPOM, the new facility will be a 10,000-square-foot unit that will house 18 residents and two "house shepherds." The residents will be comprised of women who have successfully completed transition programs from across the state, according to McCrary, making the program "even better."

Additionally, the new facility will have offices on the bottom floor for TPOM to expand its counseling program, as well as space for their case managers to work.

"It'll be a program that will allow women to continue with their dignity and build that structure and stability and foundation, so they can continue to grow and help their communities," she told News 2.

The facility will be a companion, of sorts, to the men's facility built in 2016, McCrary said, and offer women an extended reintegration process into society after their incarceration.

While the transition program lasts between four and six months and has strict rules surrounding residence, McCrary said the "step down" house functions as a step down from the more structured program.

"When you graduate a transition program or recovery program, there's nowhere to go," she said, which is how TPOM is helping to step in that gap for those in need. "It's hard for this marginalized population to be able to get a house. So this just offers more women the opportunity to do that without their past being a barrier."

The land where the Morgan House will sit was donated by the House's namesake, according to McCrary.

Back in 2016, when the men's facility was built, TPOM Executive Director Thomas Snow made a concentrated effort to contact all those who lived nearby to assuage any concerns or hesitance about having formerly incarcerated men living in their neighborhood. Mrs. Morgan was one such neighbor.

Snow gave Mrs. Morgan his card, telling her to call him if she ever had any issues, and she took him up on that offer—repeatedly.

"She'd lived here for decades with her husband until he passed," McCrary said. "She called often. She was very apprehensive about [the facility]."

But when the residents began moving in, they noticed Mrs. Morgan had little things around her home that needing fixing or cleaning, so they offered to help her.

"They just went and did it," McCrary said, building a trust and relationship with their elderly neighbor that turned her opinion of them and the program around.

When Morgan had a stroke and needed a wheelchair ramp built, it was TPOM she called for help. As it happened, one of the residents at the time had a background in construction, and he was able to get the ramp built for Mrs. Morgan, with TPOM covering the cost of materials.

When Morgan passed in late 2018, she left her home and its land to TPOM, according to McCrary, and that is why the new women's facility will bear her name: "in remembrance to her legacy."

As plans for the Morgan House continue, McCrary said their little neighborhood has embraced TPOM and the work they do helping people reintegrate into society after incarceration.

"It's a great little community now," she said. "When there are soccer games, because we're right by GEODIS, everybody's out and getting along, and we all do parking. It seems to be working very well, and there's not much apprehension at all."

There are even some neighbors who help those living at TPOM facilities by offering them odd jobs to complete, McCrary added.

Further, the organization allows counseling students from Trevecca Nazarene University, Belmont University and Lipscomb University to come and work internships through their counseling programs for the residents.

"It's a whole great little community that we have here, and everybody is really blessed by it," she said.

After a minor zoning snafu, McCrary said TPOM will likely break ground on the Morgan House in late June, and it would be completed by next year. To that end, TPOM will be holding a fundraiser for the Morgan House on June 7 at the Old Natchez Country Club in Franklin. Doors open at 11 a.m. with the event set for an 11:30 a.m. start. To register and for more information, visit tpom.org.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/middle-tn-neighborhood-news/the-morgan-house-offering-strength-transformation-resilience-in-wedgewood-houston/