Georgetown organization makes clients, residents feel 'worthy'

Libby Cunningham, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·5 min read

Apr. 8—GEORGETOWN — There's not a dry eye in the dining room area of Providence House in Georgetown when two women who've been touched by the program tell their stories.

"The most important thing (I've learned) is I am worthy," Marilyn Cunningham said. "That, for me as a mother, that was something I didn't have any of that before I came into the program. So, just learning that I am worthy and that I am a good mother, that has been something that has been most important to me."

Cunningham is one of many people touched by the properties of Providence House and Guerin Woods in Georgetown.

Providence House is a treatment facility for families in Crisis and Guerin Woods offers affordable housing to seniors.

Both are under the same umbrella of Providence Self-Sufficient Ministries where CEO Joel Henderson has been at the helm since December.

Henderson and other leaders have big plans for the properties, initially founded by nun Sister Barbara Ann Zeller in the 1994.

The property was also the site of the Villas of Guerin Hills, but that facet was sold to a different entity in 2021.

The group is working on a strategic plan that could in the future include an expansion to another area.

"(At Providence House) we help preserve families and re-unify families that are Department of Child Services involved," Henderson said. "...we have families referred to us by DCS and we can have 10 families up at one time."

Things like budgeting, cleaning and parenting are addressed. Therapy is also offered as well.

Back at Providence House Cunningham is sitting with employee, and former resident, Sarah Morris. Henderson is also in the room.

Morris said she first came to the program in 2014 when she gave birth to her daughter. Both Morris, and her daughter, were addicted to heroin when she was born.

"I was addicted to heroin," Morris said. "It wasn't something I could just quit."

But with the help of Providence House, and its Executive Director Dr. Liz England, she's been clean for a few years now.

Morris said she relapsed after leaving, but thanks to the skills she learned at Providence House, she was able to overcome the relapse.

"Liz England is probably someone I look up to more than most people," Morris said. "Her style is very straightforward and up front. I feel like addicts in recovery need that. She's very good and upfront."

Providence House accepts families involved with the Department of Child Services and allows parents to work through any issues with their children by their side.

England said Providence House holds all clients to a higher standard than DCS and helps them gain the knowledge and skills for a successful life outside its walls.

"There are a couple other programs that are somewhat similar to us that offer transitional housing and other services," England said. "But we are unique in that we are not just offering some services, we are trying to run a full-fledged treatment program. It's not like you can have some therapy if you want it, you will be receiving some therapy."

She said the program also addresses generational trauma in families.

"We are trying to focus on understanding these intergeneration patterns of trauma of child abuse and neglect," England said. "Our program gets parents thinking and gaining insight."

Providence House is just one piece of the puzzle with Providence Self-Sufficient Ministries.

Director of Operations Leann Bannet said she doesn't even feel like she's going into work when she's there, because she loves what she does and the people she serves.

"I think of it as coming in here and doing a ministry," she said. "...There's so much of a need for our elders and children, who are extremely vulnerable populations. I don't look at it as a job, I come in here and fill a need."

Sister's Closet, a place where people who are clients can get items they need when transitioning to housing, is being set up.

"When our folks graduate, a lot of them don't have anything," Henderson said. "So we set them up. We have furniture and clothes."

Guerin Woods is housing for low-income seniors on the property, with a vibrant senior community center.

Each apartment has a roomy front porch and all of the amenities seniors use to live independently. Nearly all the units are now occupied.

It's a place where older people say they can be seen.

Mildred Hill, Barbara Nannen and Nancy Boden are busy spending part of Good Friday making Easter bags for apartment residents.

"We are packaging donated candy and bags for the apartment residents," Boden said. "And the lady who sends us the donation lives in California but her mother lived on campus some years ago."

Boden said seniors are invisible to the rest of the world sometimes.

There's 47 apartments, Boden said, and it's important to take a little Easter gift to someone to show people they care.

The community center offers lunches, crafting sessions, a library, card games and more to the people who live on campus.

"It's important so they feel wanted, so they feel needed and so they feel loved," Boden said. "...most of our people have somebody, but some of them don't have somebody who is close by."