A collaboration between PRUMC and COR, the Welcome Home House program seeks to build safe, stable housing for women returning to society from prison, allowing them to reach their full potential.

    Welcome Home House 

    1278 Joseph E Boone Blvd

    Together, Peachtree Road, Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, and City of Refuge have created a safe, healing place for women to transition to their new normal and reenter society.

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    No life is beyond God’s reach.

    Peachtree Road’s Restoration Prison Ministry is dedicated to bringing hope and the prospect of a new future to incarcerated men and women. We begin with the belief of self-worth. All of God’s children have been touched by different circumstances. Some have been impacted by crime and their loss is great. We know that there is a “come-back” in everyone and our goal is to help men and women make it.

    Restoration strives to create a comprehensive program that supports any aspect of life that can further transformation. In addition to ministry to prisoners, we work with wardens, family and legislators.

    Our ultimate goal is to break the cycle of return to prison due to lack of adjustment. With a thoughtful approach, we can provide skills and support so men and women can overcome challenges and step confidently onto a new path.

    HOW WE BEGAN

    For over a decade, a core group of women from PRUMC have led a discussion/bible study at Lee Arrendale State Prison under the guidance of Chaplain Susan Bishop.

    In 2018, the decision was made to expand the Prison Ministry.

    PRUMC formed an alliance with The Cathedral of St. Philip, Covenant Presbyterian and Unity Fellowship Church of God in Christ Decatur to form Restoration Partners

    We call our ministry Restoration Partners because this is not a PRUMC ministry, this is Jesus’ ministry

    Restore us, LORD God Almighty: make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. – Psalm 80:19

    PARTNERS MANDATE

    • Whatever we do we will do it with excellence.

    • Focus on three facilities, initially:
      • Lee Arrendale State Prison (Women – Alto, GA)
      • Metro Reentry Facility (Men – Atlanta)
      • Metro Transition Facility (Women – Atlanta).

    • Fill in gaps not addressed by other groups supporting these facilities. We will be purposely diligent to not replicate, but rather complement, other initiatives.

    • Be a player in the successful reentry of returning citizens into the community providing mentoring, job training, and spiritual support.

    • Be an advocate for prison reform

    THE HANDS AND FEET OF CHRIST

    To those incarcerated, we offer Bible study, discipleship courses, life skills classes, mentorships and community re-entry programs. Our work with wardens encourages them to change the culture of correctional facilities to ones of moral rehabilitation. Our ministry to families helps make holidays less lonely and nurtures the relationship of parent and child. With legislators, we help retool our system to provide justice with transformation.

    Click the sections below to expand and learn more about our specific programs.

    WEEKLY

    • Fund and lead a class at Lee Arrendale.


    MONTHLY

    • Provide food and hygiene products for the indigent population at Metro.  Shop our Amazon Wish List Here.
    • Reentry Facility and Metro Transition Center (just under 30% of the population): Returning citizens are responsible for certain meals on the weekends and certain hygiene products. If they do not have money, they do not eat. The items are distributed by the facility chaplains.


    ANNUALLY

    • Sponsor Voices of Hope choir from Lee Arrendale at PRUMC, including dinner.
    • Sponsor and supply all the volunteers and materials for a family day event at both Metro Reentry Facility and Metro Transition Center – more than 2,500 family members and returning citizens attend each year.
    • Provide Christmas gift bags to over 500 returning citizens at Metro Reentry Facility and Metro Transitional Center (e.g., hygiene items, snacks, socks, pens, paper).
    • Sponsor 10 children of Returning Citizens to attend Camp Hope, a week-long summer camp (2019 first year) Run by Kidz2Leaders, a Christian nonprofit based in Atlanta whose mission is to offer support, stability and Christian community to the children of inmates.


    ONGOING

    • Created and maintaining a garment bank at Metro Reentry Facility with gently used work suits and casual clothes. Each returning citizen will have an interview suit and set of casual clothes when they leave.
    • Created and led a 3-part class on etiquette (good manners) at Metro Reentry Facility. Class well-received and will be repeated.
    • Support Women in Transition (those recently released) with funding and necessities like personal toiletries, Walmart gift cards, linens, etc.
    • Every opportunity we get, educate on what we are doing and the realities of incarceration. Over 20 different small groups, including several youth groups, to date.
    • Provided a scholarship to a former Lee Arrendale returning citizen for a seminar led by Dr. Elizabeth Bounds (Chandler School of Theology at Emory University).
    • Provided pianos to two facilities and a guitar to another that had no music.
    • Provided 300 socks for Christmas bags at Pulaski State Prison (women).
    • Funded (currently finalizing) a short video on the real victims of incarceration, the children of the returning citizens. The incarceration rate of a child of an incarcerated parent is over 70%. We will use this video for education. We want to do what we can to help to stop this vicious cycle and this film will begin to illuminate the situation and hopefully spur more action.
    • A mentoring program at the three facilities we support. We work with qualified, trained and inspired teammates to support returning citizens in the free world.
    • Partnering with City of Refuge to bring the TYRO Program to Metro Transition Center (currently at Metro Reentry Facility).

    • SUITCASE MINISTRY
      Contribute and participate in the suitcase ministry – pack old suitcases with new clothes, hygiene items, Marta and Walmart cards for women leaving prison and Metro Transition Center.

      You can easily purchase items through our Amazon Wish List Here.

       

       

      • Collect men’s khaki pants, collared shirts and golf shirts for men leaving prison
      • Become a part of the mentoring program at Metro Reentry facility
      • Send the child of an inmate to sleep away summer camp
      • Participate in the Family Fun Days at Metro Transition Center and Metro Reentry Center
      • Pack Christmas Bags for those living at Metro Transition Center and Metro Reentry Center
      • Help with the Food pantry at Metro Transition Center and Metro Reentry Center – Shop our Amazon Wish List Here.

    “In the [etiquette] class we taught the men how to tie a tie. You should have seen their faces when they could do it for themselves – like a kid at Christmas.

    “At Christmas Kindness this year, one of the returning citizens who had participated and who had been free for 90 days was a client. I happened to be volunteering the day he shopped. He recognized me and ran up to tell me he had not forgotten how to tie the tie and how impactful the seminar was for him and his friends.

    “He said no one ever took the time to teach them good manners.” – Ed Hamlin

    THE KEYS TO OUR SUCCESS

    • Strong team of volunteers
    • Strong support from the clergy leadership of each charter church member

    FOR MORE INFORMATION

    Contact Beth Spencer at beths@prumc.org, or 404.240.8234.

    OUR ASK

    • Continued financial and prayerful support
    • Feedback on areas that you would like our attention
    • Spread the word