STOCKTON, Calif. — With 218 beds, the Women's New Life Program is ramping up to become one of the largest of its kind in North America.
“When you can take and regenerate one person and put them back in the community, it’s an amazing win for the community,” said Wayne Richardson, CEO of the Gospel Center Rescue Mission (GCRM).
Richardson and GCRM renovated the old Alustiza building into the William R. "Bill" Brown building. It's a new building that brings 118 new dorm beds to the campus -- more than doubling dorm capacity for the New Life Program.
“(The Alustiza building) was really a graveyard in the corner of our campus -- a constant reminder that we had some work to do to step up to be a leader in providing homeless solutions. So that’s the start of our expansion to be able to serve the entire region of women,” Richardson said.
The new beds are 118 more opportunities for women and women with children to get back on their feet, find a job, find a home, and give back to their community.
One of the people helping residents do that is Laurie Smith, a case manager at GCRM. Connecting to residents comes a bit easier to Smith, because, three years ago, she was in the program herself.
“I came here just to try and stay out of jail, and (now) I’m where I’m at today,” she said.
For about 30 years, Smith struggled with drugs, and that struggle strained her relationship with her children and other loved ones. She wound up at GCRM because she was fighting a court case and didn't want to go back to prison, she said.
“I didn’t plan on staying," Smith said. "I didn’t plan on having a relationship with God.”
Discarding her old lifestyle, she restored her relationship with her four sons and three grandchildren.
“If I would have known it was this great, I probably would have done it a long time ago,” she said.
With 118 new beds at the center, she can't wait to see more women go through the same growth process and change their lives as well.
The expansion is an effort that goes back more than a decade. Its foundation was set during a time when the building's namesake, Bill Brown, was at the helm of GCRM.
“It’s been a dream of mine for about 15 years to renovate this facility for… these women and their children,” Brown said.
With decades of experience under his belt, the former CEO said the renovation is one of the biggest things to have happened in the county, especially when it's helping the center's New Life Program.
“We’re not just recycling women from the street to the program back to the street, back and forth over a period of years,” he said.
Brown believes this program is changing lives and getting women back into the world as self-sufficient individuals that can support their kids.
The multi-phased program can take up to two years to finish. In the first phase, people get accustomed to life off the street, and then they get jobs and start saving their money. Afterward, they continue their sobriety, give back to their community, and then seek a home of their own.
“You don’t recognize the person that came into the program… and just their whole demeanor has changed," Richardson said. "They’re not takers; they’re givers.”
For Smith, it's a different type of program and one that worked for her when many others didn't. She encouraged anyone in need to give the program a shot.
“What’s six months out of your life? What’s two years out of your life as opposed to living underneath a bridge and losing your children?” she said.
Richardson said GCRM will be moving people into the new building before Christmas.
