The Commercial Appeal: Agape Memphis Helps Homeless Moms-to-be Through FIT
Homeless moms-to-be find help through Agape program
FIT offers housing, assistance to pregnant women
By Linda A. Moore
Sunday, May 23, 2010
After problems at home with her mother, Phyllyaniese Jordan moved in with her boyfriend, the father of her unborn son.
When he became abusive, she found herself and her 3-year-old daughter homeless and sleeping on a girlfriend’s floor.
That girlfriend recommended she call the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association for help. MIFA sent her to Agape Child & Family Services.
On Saturday, Jordan, 21, became one of eight pregnant women to move into the Bent Tree Apartments in Whitehaven, the second Agape Families in Transition campus for homeless pregnant women and their children.
“I’m just thankful for everything they’re doing for me and the other women,” Jordan said.
A two-year program, FIT provides free housing, prenatal assistance, counseling, parenting classes, mentoring, spiritual support and other aid to participants.
By July they expect to have 20 pregnant mothers and their children settled into the Bent Tree Apartments, said David Jordan, Agape Child Family executive director.
“We’re working in some of the most blighted under-served communities, to go into those communities and provide resources,” said Jordan, who is not related to Phyllyaniese Jordan.
At the Bent Tree, Agape is working with the Hope Fellowship Baptist Church which has been located inside the apartment complex for 12 years. The church offers tutoring for school children, literacy programs for all ages, computer and GED classes and other services to residents, including FIT program participants.
Just as the womb protects the unborn babies, FIT is “building a womb” around the mothers-to-be and is a significant element in Shelby County’s ongoing offensive to lower the infant-mortality rate, said Memphis Mayor A C Wharton.
“We’re going to give your baby what every child ought to have. It’s just a right that every child be guaranteed to see its first birthday,” Wharton said.
Since opening its first FIT campus in 2001 at Jackson Avenue near Hollywood, hundreds have women have gone through the program, which has an 83 percent success rate, David Jordan said.
Success, he said, is measured by the mother’s ability to parent successfully, live independently and earn a living wage.
“Just having a job is not enough. We want $10, $12, $14 an hour,” he said.
Phyllyaniese Jordan graduated from Whitehaven High School. She hopes to use the opportunity created through FIT to become a nurse and build a better life for her daughter and the baby boy she’s expecting in August.
“Sleeping on the floor, that’s not how I want my children to grow up,” she said.
– Linda A. Moore: 529-2702
© 2010 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online
Tags: Agape Memphis, FIT, homeless