Stories of Hope: The Hope Cottage

A Story

I want you to take a moment and imagine something with me. A story of sorts.

You are in a home with the ones you love. Your children are there. You are with the partner of your dreams. You have all that you could want. You get to care for the young people in your life while having a spouse who gets you, knows you, knows your worst flaws and your best strengths. You have decided that for the children’s sake, and maybe for the cost of daycare, that you will stay home with the kids and take care of them. While your partner goes to work to earn a living for the whole family. This was your decision, one that both of you decided.

Now imagine that something stressful happens to your partner. They lose the job you both depended on. They have a setback and some old debts come due. Or they start drinking or using drugs again like they did in their younger days. You see the old anger patterns emerge. They are easily frustrated. Their temper returns. Suddenly everything is your fault. You thought you were past this. You tell yourself that it’s just because of the situation, that they will get better again.

They start disappearing more and more. You aren’t sure where they are but you trust that they are out there working on behalf of the family you both created. When they do come home they are just angry. It’s all the time now. All that they can say is that the house is a mess. That nothing is done right. That the kids are acting out too much. Everything becomes your fault and your problem. You try to protect the kids from hearing this but you can’t, your partner cuts down anyone who crosses their path. There is no personal responsibility for what is wrong in the home. All the blame rests on you and the children.

Then one day your partner snaps. They are so angry that they hit you when you open your mouth to ask a legitimate question. You justify it as “this one time.” You worry they will take it out on the kids. You were right. There are moments of calm, moments of apologies, though brief. It won’t happen again, “I was angry.” You hope they are being truthful. Though you suspect it will happen again.

This cat and mouse trap, this back and forth, this trust and disappointment, this calm then fight or flight, this highs and lows way of life is becoming exhausting. Your fear is palpable and it is eating you and the kids alive.

But you are a family and you all love each other. What can you do?

One day your partner takes a swing at you in the parking lot. The kids are at school. Unbeknownst to you a stranger sees it happen. They call the cops and at your next stop, the officer takes your partner into custody. For now.

You are scared. You worry about your partner. You hate to even think it but you are momentarily relieved. For just this moment. What about tomorrow?

Your friend hears about the arrest, has no idea about the situation at home. Your friend tells you there is a secret place you can go. You can take the children and you all can be safe. They will house you. They will feed you. They will gently help you figure out your options. They will allow the kids to have a safe bedroom and a place to play. And you will get help to make a plan. A plan for freedom. A plan with hope.

A Story of Hope

Until recently, this hopeful place did not exist in our Wedowee area. Now, thanks to some amazing women in our community, this place not only exists, it eagerly awaits the families that need safety from a family member.

Let me introduce you to the ladies who created the Hope Cottage.

Linda Jones, a former family and child advocate in the state of Georgia, when reading the local county newspaper noticed a troubling trend. You may have noticed it as well. When you read about the arrests - what stands out? To Linda, she saw over and over again the amount of domestic violence arrests. It concerned her greatly and so she asked locally — how can I get in touch with the shelter?

The answer at the time — There is no shelter.

This absolutely haunted her. Linda owned a boutique at the time and so she gathered with the women who worked there for a prayer circle to pray for the Lord to provide a shelter for these women. For the Lord to provide the needed people to create the shelter. For a year they prayed. That was 2018.

And sometimes, my friends, you become the answer to your own prayers.

The women at the store started exploring what it would take to make this shelter happen. Linda was a business woman, not a nonprofit leader. She knew she would need grants. And for that she wanted a grant writer. So they prayed for the Lord to bring them a grant writer.

Enter Jane Entrekin.

Jane had moved to Wedowee from Greenville, South Carolina. She met some of the women in the prayer circle and when they asked her what she did she said, “Well, I’m a grant writer. ”To which they replied, “We’ve been praying for you for three years."

They incorporated as a 501(C)3 nonprofit in 2023. They found a wonderfully gifted board of local directors who prayed as much or more as they did. They all jumped in readily to work together to bring this dream to fruition, for the women of Randolph County.

Jane started working on a TMobile grant, which they received. It was enough money for a significant down payment for a house for the women in need and some improvements. Then local leaders and churches came in and helped to get the house ready to move in. They started enlisting anyone they could find to help and found a skillset and compassion from local friends that was truly inspiring. They found people willing to give financially, people who donated their time, people who donated everything from construction to a security system.

The house is in an undisclosed location for safety reasons. It has five bedrooms that are finished. One end of the house is done. So is the kitchen and the dining hall.

They will have three more bedrooms when they finish the house and it will ultimately have four total bathrooms that are handicap accessible, committing to doing the improvements in phases.

The Dream

As the home is coming together, they have even bigger dreams, of course.

Linda and Jane hope for:

–Playground equipment for the children who have been displaced

–Basketball goals and such for the older kids

–Planter boxes for teaching about gardening

–An outbuilding becoming a training center for many skills needed as single moms in their new reality

–Classes taught by members of the community - from sewing to budgeting to nutrition

–A building endowment for the future of the home

–Board members from every corner of the Randolph county community

–A person in charge of operations to free up Linda and Jane to be the front facing ambassadors for the organization(they currently only have a part-time house mother)

–A transportation system (other than Linda and Jane) to pickup those in need, usually in an emergency situation

–$150,000 per year in donations and grants

–An onboarding process for the families that addresses all of their needs.

The Lord has provided for all of their hopes and dreams thus far for the cottage. Linda and Jane know deep down in their souls that God will give them all that they ask for to care for and empower these women and children.

The Reality

For many of us, this “issue” can feel like something far away or “not in my neighborhood.” However, the stats say that 1 in3 women will experience abuse. One in three! Think of the women you know in our community. Every third woman that you know could be experiencing abuse at the hands of someone they know and love and trust. It happens in all backgrounds and life experiences and socio economic levels.

Domestic violence is a control factor, when someone loses control (real or perceived) then they seek to control their spouse or partner.

When our community members are experiencing abuse, all that they can see is today.

“We are serving a population that needs hope. We give them hope in many areas in their life. This is for all citizens. If you invest in them — our sisters, our friends, our cousins, our neighbors and their children now - the outcomes are amazing. The community sees less people in jail, more young people who are invested in and successful, and community members who give back as citizens. It’s a much bigger investment than just a shelter,” Linda says.

In this cycle of violence, the Hope Cottage offers the kids who come to the shelter a glimmer of what life could be like without violence, intimidation, isolation. If we don’t intervene in the life of these kids, they will grow up to perhaps be batterers and for the girls, they so very often partner with abusers or would be abusers.

Hope Cottage offers a family legacy change... growing up without violence and fear.

John Maxwell said, “People tend to become what the most important people in their lives think they will become.”

Wedowee — let’s be the community that believes our neighbors into a life that is greater than their fears AND be the community that puts that belief into action. Just like Linda and Jane and their board and the volunteers.

Consider the dreams of the Hope Cottage and ask yourselves this Christmas season, how can we make some of these Hope Cottage dreams come true?

Answering that question with our time, talents and gifts sounds like hope.

If you or someone you know is living with domestic violence, please call 256.294.9010

If you would like to know more about the Hope Cottage, please email hopecottageofrandolphcounty@gmail.com

If you would like to donate please mail checks to:

Hope Cottage

PO Box 366

Wedowee, AL 36278.

All donations are tax-deductible.

By: Angie Stryker