Between January and March of this year,
Lydia’s House went from a dream to reality.
Organizers and volunteers secured donations from enough individuals to purchase a Norwood home, which will serve as a refuge for women and their children beginning in early 2014.
“In our community, there are many people who don’t have opportunities for stable, transitional housing to get on their feet,” says Calista Smith, Lydia’s House board member. “There are often homeless shelters that max out. It’s a day-by-day or week-by-week situation as to how long you can stay in either friends’ homes or shelters, but this will be something they have access to for six to 18 months.“
Though Lydia’s House reached its goal of purchasing a home, Smith says $60,000 worth of funding is still needed, as the home is in need of renovation.
Once the goal is met, however, four women and their children will be able to move in to the home, where they will begin working toward gaining job skills, saving for long-term housing and growing in a supportive and loving environment.
Though Lydia’s House is still in its early stages of planning, Smith says the goal is that women will be able to “grow together in wholeness with their children.”
In order for that to happen, community members will come together to repair the home, paint, provide lawn care and perhaps even donate to adopt a room, but Smith says her hope is that individuals move beyond the notion that financial contributions alone can change lives.
“We really believe that this is an exercise in extended community, in that we need people to be connected—not only, ‘Okay, here’s some money to help someone,’ but really feeling that we have a shared vision of the world,” Smith says. “This is a continued effort for the Norwood community to have a vision of something to engage in that brings the whole community together while uplifting four women at a time—four families at a time.”
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By Brittany York
Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.