For 27 years, the Sandy Springs-based Mary Hall Freedom Village has provided programs and housing to help women to get back on their feet. A recent $50,000 grant from the Truist Foundation is making it a bit easier.
The funds are earmarked for a career development program designed to get women back into the workforce. For the Mary Hall population, that begins with beating addiction.
“Our mission is to empower women, children, veterans and families to end the cycle of addiction and poverty,” said Development Director Kristen Posey. “To do that, we offer housing to about 250 women and 80 children, and substance abuse treatment with wrap-around services in behavioral health, job training, child care, veterans care and individual case management.”
The programs, delivered by a staff of about 80 in several locations across Fulton and Gwinnett counties, are designed to treat each participant holistically.
“We not only get them healthy and over their addiction, but we give them the skills and resources so they can be self-sufficient and support themselves and their families,” she said.
What makes the Mary Hall programs unique is that participants have no deadline to leave. The average stay is six to nine months.
“Each woman gets an individualized service plan that talks about their goals and outlines steps and classes they need to take to achieve those objectives,” said Posey. “Once they complete the service plan, they can make the decision to go. As long as they’re progressing, they can stay as long as it takes. And sometimes a woman comes back. Addiction is tough to overcome, and if they need more help, we’ll put them through our program again.”
Earlier this year, the nonprofit opened a family services center and invited the community to participate in workshops around self-defense, nutrition and more. The center also houses the Freedom Academy which supports recovering women with a day care center, after-school and summer programs and a learning center.
“This year, the academy had six 10-day cohorts of about 15 who met every day to engage in hands-on workshops, mentoring and coaching,” said Posey. “Some of our corporate partners came to speak to the women about how to put together a resume and dress for an interview.”
Along with the program development grant, Truist also donated an additional $50,000 to revamp the family services center.
“We now have a facility that makes it much easier for us to provide as much as we can in-house, and that makes it easier for the women,” said Posey. “It also increases their chances of success. Ideally, we hope they don’t have to come back.”
Information about Mary Hall Freedom Village is online at maryhallfreedomvillage.org.
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