Homeless women, children find place to call home at Battle Ground nonprofit

BATTLE GROUND – The name and board of directors may have changed, but the mission at Mom’s Place Maternity, a Battle Ground nonprofit that provides housing and resources for homeless mothers and their young children, is still the same: “Empowering homeless women and their children to lead independent and successful lives.”

“We used to be Avonlea Acres,” explains Mom’s Place Maternity Program Director Tamicka Fellows. “But the Board of Directors was getting older and they’d been doing this for seven years. Most of them had grandchildren and wanted to spend more time with family. They were all ready to retire.”

Likewise, the maternity home’s founders and on-site “house parents,” Rhoda and Tom Hilman, also were ready for retirement, Fellows says. But the two brothers who owned the actual maternity home property – Kim and Kameel Majdali – weren’t ready to give up on the program.

“Helping homeless pregnant women and mothers was Kim and Kameel’s mother’s dream,” explains Mom’s Place Maternity Executive Director Jennifer Laudette. “The land and home are owned by the Louise Haddad Trust, which is named for their mother.”

When the call went out for a new board and new directors, Fellows had already been interning and working as a “house parent” at the maternity home for six months. She and her husband, along with their three young children, were willing to stay on and run the program on a volunteer basis if a new board could pull together and take over the nonprofit. Laudette and her husband, Troy, had supported Avonlea Acres and wanted to keep the home going.

In September, the Laudettes, along with Kim Majdali and Battle Ground community members JoDee McMillan, Denice Harvey and Elka Sundwall took over as the Board of Directors and formulated a new plan for the newly renamed Mom’s Place Maternity.

At the heart of that plan is a concentrated fundraising effort that hopes to raise money with an annual benefit dinner/auction, monthly “sustaining members” and various forms of grant funding.

“Fundraising is crucial right now,” Laudette says. “We need money to keep this place running … and we always need volunteers and donations.”

The new board has organized its first big fundraising event – a 1940s USO-themed benefit with live music, a catered buffet dinner, beer and wine, and tons of door prizes, raffles and silent auction items, which is happening this weekend, on Sat., Nov. 7 – within a matter of just a few weeks, with impressive results.

“We hope to have 200 people attend and, right now, we’re up to 88 or 89, so almost halfway there,” Fellows says.

The fundraiser kicks off at 6 p.m., Sat., Nov. 7, at the Battle Ground Community Center, 912 E. Main St., Battle Ground. Tickets cost $50 at the door. The Vancouver band There She Goes will provide entertainment. JoFoody is catering the event. And Mill City is providing beer and wine. There will be door prizes and raffle items, as well as a silent auction packed with coveted goodies like local wines, coastal trips, high-end jewelry, a sailing trip, and stays at Hallmark Resorts and Skamania Lodge. Organizers hope the Nov. 7 auction will be the nonprofit’s biggest fundraising event, providing up to four months’ worth of the maternity home’s expenses.

Futures more important than pasts

Fundraising and running a nonprofit can be all-consuming, especially when you’re doing it on a volunteer basis, but for the people who have kept the Battle Ground maternity home running, the reward of seeing a woman transition from a homeless person who is nearly invisible in this society to a mother with a real future is worth it.

And for the women who call Mom’s Place Maternity home – for six months up to two years – the program is an invaluable part of finding a more stable life for their family. 

“I just keep counting my blessings since coming here,” says 27-year-old Tahkeena Carlson. “It’s nice to know that I have a place to come home to, a place where my kids are comfortable and happy.”

Last year at this time, Carlson says she had “hit rock bottom.” She was homeless, trying to regain custody of her two oldest children – 4-year-old Da’Chantay and nearly 2-year-old Chaneicah – and pregnant with her youngest child, Malachi, who is now 2 months old.

Carlson regained custody of her children in July, gave birth to Malachi in August and moved into Mom’s Place Maternity on Oct. 1. Three weeks after moving in, Carlson had secured daycare for her children and started working. Each weekday, Carlson gets up around 5:30 a.m., prepares herself and her three young children for the day, and starts her hour-long bus commute to daycare and work. She does the reverse commute each evening, wearing baby Malachi in a baby-sling and pushing the two older girls in a double stroller, getting home around 6 p.m., in time for the maternity home’s communal dinner.

“I love it here,” Carlson says. “There is room for my kids to run and to feel free. They love the chickens and (Fellows’) little doggy. And there are other kids to play with. They look forward to coming home every day.”

Now that her most basic needs – food, shelter and clothing – have been met, Carlson can concentrate on improving herself and her future. She is working, saving money to move into her own home within the next year.

“I like to stay busy, so I don’t mind the long days,” Carlson says. “And it’s so nice to be able to say ‘we’re home’ at the end of the day.”

Cherokee Crooker, 20, is another young mother who lives at Mom’s Place Maternity with her young child, 6-month-old Jaxon. Crooker was a homeless teenager hopping from couch to couch, staying with a network of friends and family, when she found out she was pregnant with Jaxon.

Unsure of what to do, Crooker contacted her aunt, who lived in the Battle Ground area. The aunt told Crooker about Mom’s Place Maternity, then called Avonlea Acres.

After going through the maternity home’s extensive interview process – designed to see if applicants meet the basic requirements, will be a good fit for the home’s dynamics, and will benefit from the program, which emphasizes hard work, meeting personal career and/or education goals and practicing loving, nonviolent parenting skills – Crooker moved from her hometown in South Carolina into the Battle Ground maternity home when she was just two months pregnant with Jaxon.

Over the past year, Crooker has earned her GED through Battle Ground School District’s Summit View program, secured her Washington State drivers’ license, given birth, found daycare for her son and enrolled at Clark College. Almost done with her associate’s degree in the paralegal field, Crooker says she hopes to someday earn her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and become a community police officer.

“I really like helping other people,” Crooker says. “And I think that I will someday want to move back to South Carolina.”

Having Mom’s Place Maternity was invaluable for this part of her life, Crooker adds.

“I had pretty bad morning sickness with Jaxon, and then I had a (cesarean) section, so I would have never been able to do this on my own,” Crooker says. “This place is a blessing.”

Located in a huge, palatial home that’s located on more than 50 acres, the Mom’s Place Maternity home is able to support up to six women and their young children for six months to two years, depending on the individual woman’s needs. 

To be accepted into the program, a woman must complete three interviews and meet the basic requirements – be 18 to 35 years old, be pregnant or have children ages 3 years or younger, and be in need of food, shelter and support. All women who enter into this nondenominational program must have a significant period of sobriety, not suffer from any debilitating mental illness, and be willing and able to do communal chores like cleaning the kitchen and making dinner for the rest of the household.

Some of the women who come to Mom’s Place Maternity have been in trouble with the law. Others came from abusive or violent homes. Others have been caught in a cycle of poverty for most of their lives. But, once they get to the Battle Ground maternity home, the directors like to say that what’s ahead is more important than what came before. On the nonprofit’s literature, there is a motto that reads: “Mom’s Place Maternity – Where Futures are More Important than Pasts.”

Mom’s Place Maternity supports each resident with an individualized program designed to help meet that woman’s specific goals. Some women just need a temporary home while they secure full-time employment and an affordable place for themselves and their children. Others need help figuring out how to complete their education and find a job or career path that interests them.

First and foremost, the program is there to meet each woman’s most basic needs of shelter, food and support.

“When you’re basic needs aren’t being met, it’s impossible to think about the future, to figure out how to better yourself,” says Fellows, the program director at Mom’s Place Maternity.

Once their basic needs are being met, the women are expected to spend 30 hours each week improving themselves – through education, working, looking for work or securing the things like daycare and a driver’s license that they’ll need for a future job. At home, there are parenting programs, communal dinners and a variety of support programs to help the women improve their lives and the lives of their children.

One program that Fellows and Laudette hope will catch on with the community is something they call the Mother Hen Program.

“We’re looking for women in the community who have been moms, maybe they’re empty-nesters now or grandmothers, who want to become a ‘mother hen’ to one or, at most, two of the (women) here,” explains Laudette. “They could come here and be a mentor, be the mom that most of these girls have never had.”

Other volunteer opportunities include community members who want to help sort donations or assist with the ever-present fix-up projects around the house and grounds. For people who would rather donate, money is always appreciated, but actual donations are welcome, too. The home already has an abundance of clothing, but is always in need of maternity clothes and children’s clothes, in sizes newborn to 4T, as well as household items like laundry soap, cleaning supplies and nonperishable, healthy foods. Additionally, baby items such as diapers, wipes and baby shampoos and lotions, as well as toiletry items for the women are always needed. There is a donation drop-off area at the home and donations are accepted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. To organize a large donation, call Fellows at (360) 991-2222.

For more information about Mom’s Place Maternity, or to make a monthly “sustaining member” donation or purchase tickets to the Nov. 7 fundraiser, visitwww.momsplacematernity.org. To contact the organization about volunteer opportunities, email admin@momsplacematernity.org.