By Pam Glicker, Women’s Program Manager at The City Mission

January 2003. The days leading up to the grand opening of Laura’s Home Women’s Crisis Center, were fast approaching.  I was on pins and needles as I anticipated what that would be like. I wondered how, and if, my close to 30 years in the restaurant business had prepared me for the direction the Lord had led me to. Preparation and training were well under way for all the staff who only weeks before had just met one another. None of us had worked together before, and no one had come with a background in rescue missions! So it was a little scary.

February 14, 2003. The Activity Room was filled to standing room only with dignitaries, media, and other invited guests from Cleveland and the surrounding areas. Many were recognized for the part they had, whether great or small, in having finally reached this long anticipated day.  The beginning of help and hope found in the form of a better solution for the many women and children with nowhere to go on the streets of the city. Mothers with families who needed more than the 14 to 28 days that emergency shelters offered would have an opportunity to step back, slow down, and shift gears, maybe for the first time in their lives. Everything under one roof and the price was right, too!

March 3, 2003. The furniture was in place. The beds were all made. The kitchen was stocked and ready for business. The staff and volunteers were prepped and eager to begin. And the doors were opened to receive the first 5 families at Laura’s Home Women’s Crisis Center! The much prayed for dream was now a reality!

March 5, 2010. Laura’s Home is seven years old now. Like those men and women who started The City Mission in 1910, our focus is still on providing help and hope to those in need. What has changed is the number of women and children.  On any given day there can be as many as 65 women and 45 children at Laura’s Home, each with the chance to take the tools that are available here and move forward with their lives!

Psalm 72: 12-13: “He will rescue the poor when they cry to him; he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them. He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them.”

Is there something you remember from the seven years and counting of Laura’s Home Women’s Crisis Center?  Please click on the comment section below to share it.

Watch the Laura’s Home Video