12:10 pm Women’s Center opens new location, announces new program
By Ashley Rader
The Abortion Alternatives & Women’s Center is in a new location and has started a new program to help better serve the community.
Photo by Danny Davis - The Abortion Alternatives and Women’s Center celebrated opening at a new location at 145 Judge Don Lewis Blvd., Elizabethton, with an open house last week. Director Angie Odom along with Betty Jones and Sharon Crowe were at the Center this week to help their clients and any other newcomers who need assistance.
The center is now located in the Watauga Industrial Park at Suite 7, 145 Judge Don Lewis Blvd. The center has been at the location near the Workforce Development Complex and the National Guard Armory for a few months but celebrated the move with an open house last week. The relocation has allowed the center to increase its space to 6,000 square feet. With the extra space, Director Angie Odom has announced that new programs will be available from the AAWC.
The newest program from the AAWC is the TLC Community Center, which will offer space for substance abuse counseling, personal and marital counseling, domestic violence and church outreach ministries. The Center will also have the TLC Community Store which will feature new and gently used items which can be donated by the public. The store will be open to the public like a traditional shopping center a few hours a week and it will then be open to AAWC clients and others recommended to the Center on scheduled days. Clients will be able to earn TLC money to spend in the store by attending school, classes at the Center or by working.
Another way they can gain TLC money is through local churches. Churches that choose to support the program will be given TLC money to distribute to people in need that they work with. Odom said local schools will also be given TLC money to hand out to students that are found to be in need of assistance.
The TLC money will work much like the “Mommy Money” which is issued through the Mommy Mart Program. The Center will also have emergency boxes of food at the Community Store for distribution to those in need. To help control the program and to lower the incidents of aid abuse, the names of the churches and schools will be on the TLC money that is handed out so the AAWC staff can report back to them at the end of the month on how the aid was used. It will also be a way to keep track of who used the program to stop cases where individuals travel from agency to agency getting assistance.
“We intend for this store to be a help to those who are working or going to school and struggling to make ends meet,” Odom said. “Many people who are working find themselves ineligible for other assistance but they are still struggling financially. They are trying hard but they receive zero government assistance because they are working or going to school which makes them ineligible. They feel like they are being punished for trying to help themselves. They are in a bigger financial bind because they lost aid because they are working.”
Odom explained that the TLC in the name of the center has a double meaning; the obvious Tender Loving Care but it is also the initials of her daughter Bethany’s birth father. She said while they were thinking of names for the new program her daughter recommended the name. Odom said she initially thought of the Tender Loving Care aspect but her daughter told her it went beyond that.
Odom said she was married before when she was younger and that her first husband, who is now deceased, battled a drug and alcohol addiction. She said she sought assistance for her young family in the form of counseling or other community programs but was not able to find it. After the marriage ended, she looked for financial or other assistance for her and her daughter but was not eligible for that because she was working. She noted she has been remarried for 18 years and that her husband is supportive and understands their need to talk about their past situation.
“We want this to be a healing place for families,” she said. “We want this to be a place where they can find the assistance that we couldn’t find when we needed it. It is more than Tender Loving Care. It is a personal note for what we have been through.”
The new space also offers more space for the programs that the AAWC has offered over the years. They will still continue their Mommy Mart, the Guard Your Heart abstinence program, pregnancy support and services, their jail outreach program and the daycare program, which is being offered jointly through Hunter First Baptist Church and is now located at the church instead of at the Center.
The bigger space will allow them to make changes to those programs as well. The Mommy Mart will be moving into the suite next to the current suite. The suite will also have a large open classroom and a kitchen space. Currently the AAWC’s classes are being held across the street at the National Guard Armory because there is not a classroom in the current suite.
The extra space will bring the classroom back to the Center and will allow them to have more classes. The kitchen space will give the Center the chance to offer cooking classes so families will know how to make nutritious meals. The different areas will be separated by half walls for better visibility and supervision of all three areas.
The Center will also have a few computer stations available for their clients who need to conduct job searches. Odom said these would be available for people who did not have access to the Internet otherwise but needed to look for a job.
Before all of the space can be used in the new Center it needs to be finished. Odom said the additional space is finished outside with an unfinished inside. The space needs to have concrete poured for the floors and sheetrock for the walls. They are also in need of the HVAC, ductwork and lighting systems.
She said she has received offers of assistance from plumbers and electricians when they reached that point in their work. The Center is also working with the youth program through AB&T to do some of the construction on the inside. She said the Center is in need of supplies to finish the space.
The Center needs concrete, sheetrock, 2x4s, a toilet and vanity for the restroom, appliances for the kitchen, cabinets, countertops, shelving, two interior doors, heat pump and duct work and a small water heater. She said they were also accepting donations of items for the TLC Community Store.
For more information, call the Abortion Alternative & Women’s Center at 543-4673.
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