Home will accept incarcerated women’s children

PATTERSON — As work nears completion on the Adullam Household of Faith children’s home in Patterson, home organizers expect to begin taking in children of incarcerated women possibly as early as the end of summer.
The home will be located off U.S. 90 in Patterson on the grounds of Bethel Pentecostal Church.
Work began on the children’s dormitory more than three years ago after completing a warehouse facility, office building and a duplex at the site.
Home organizers plan to start accepting children under the ages of 2 or 3 from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel, the Rev. Marty Harden of Bethel Pentecostal Church said. Women wanting to send their children to the home will sign over custody of their children with the goal of eventually reuniting families once the women are released from prison, Harden said.
Harden wants the home to influence the children and provide an environment free from negative outside influences, which is the reason the home plans to start with infants and toddlers, he said.
As soon as the home gets fire marshal approval and occupancy approval within the next month, they can begin taking in children, Harden said.
John Kimball, president and founder of Matthew 25 International, has led the construction of the two-story 8,000-square-foot building and is a contractor by trade. Matthew 25 International, which has acted as contractor for the project, partnered with Bethel Pentecostal, which will handle the day-to-day operation of the home, Kimball said.
Kimball also operates a children’s home in Peru that has 35 kids who have been abandoned and orphaned, he said. Kimball lives in a duplex on the church grounds.
The downstairs portion consists of living quarters for boys and girls, and a section for infants. Upstairs will provide living quarters for the mother and father figures of the home, Kelly and Matthew Williamson and their two children, along with a section for volunteers to live. The Williamsons are members of Bethel Pentecostal Church.
Harden wants the home to affect children on a “spiritual level,” but also wants to help to break the chain of families going into the penal system, he said. Through research, Harden learned that many families have had five consecutive generations go to prison, which has created a cycle that children’s home leaders want to stop, he said.
They also want to help women who are in a “hopeless and desperate situation,” Harden said. The children will be brought to visit their mothers on a regular basis, probably monthly, he said.
“When their mothers get out, we hope to have some transitional housing in place where they can spend some time with their children while getting on their feet,” Harden said.
The children’s home may also temporarily house children of women who live at Teen Challenge, a substance abuse rehab program located at the old Baldwin Elementary School, Harden said. Women at that facility stay there for three to four months, Harden said.
Though the home could begin to accept children by summer’s end, the first child accepted will likely be in October, Harden said. One woman incarcerated at St. Gabriel is due to have a baby in October and has been in touch with home staff because she wants her child to live there, Harden said.
The Adullam Household of Faith has benefited greatly from the generosity of the community providing free labor for much of the work on the home and businesses providing materials for the home at cost, Harden said.
“A lot of people have helped us, and we’re thankful,” Harden said.
The security camera provider, Advance Technology of Glendale, Wisconsin, donated the system to monitor the interior and exterior of the dormitory, which is worth about $70,000, Kimball said.
The doors and floors of the home were installed within the past couple months, and Kimball customized and rebuilt cabinets from $50,000 donated to the home.
The dormitory has hurricane straps on every stud so it’s extremely well-prepared to withstand any storms, Kimball said.
Kimball estimates the home will appraise for $1.2 million to $1.3 million with organizers having spent less than half that amount to build the home thanks to donated labor and materials.
The Adullam Household of Faith will be the only children’s home in the state that specifically houses the children of incarcerated women, as far as Harden knows. There are only two such homes in the entire country that Harden is aware of, one in Alabama and another in Kentucky, Harden said.
Bethel Pentecostal and Matthew 25 International have plans to eventually build more children’s homes on the church’s 11 to 12 acres of property in Patterson as they get the funding needed.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.