A licensed childcare center for children aged 6 months to 5 years is part of the plans for Room At The Inn’s The Promise Center, thanks to a $3 million state grant to purchase land for the center. (Illustration provided by Room at the Inn)GREENSBORO — Room At The Inn has provided shelter for hundreds of pregnant women without homes over the past 30 years, and now it is well on its way to expanding its services – thanks to a $3 million grant from the State of North Carolina.
Room At The Inn will use the grant funds to purchase 44 acres in Kernersville for construction of The Promise Center, which will include a licensed childcare center, support services including a housing program, an educational building for life skills and job training, and living quarters for volunteers.
Through its Partners on the Journey capital campaign, Room At The Inn seeks to raise an additional $6.3 million for the construction of four buildings that will offer direct services to single mothers and their children.
The licensed and accredited maternity shelter in Greensboro offers comprehensive care that leads these single mothers and their children to lives of hope-filled independence.
“Room At The Inn has always provided postpartum care and help with mothers’ transition from our programs to their own stable housing,” said Father Noah Carter, board chairman of Room At The Inn and pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Kernersville.
“The dream has always been to do more,” he said, “and with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, we finally have the momentum and eagerness of a pro-life movement that can make the dream come true.”
First formed in 1993, the agency has over the years expanded its services for abortion-vulnerable women experiencing homelessness, including supported community living for new mothers earning a college degree or completing job training.
The need for these services is greater than ever with the changing legal landscape in North Carolina, where the General Assembly passed a law in May banning abortions after 12 weeks in most cases.
The $3 million grant comes from the Office of State Budget and Management. The groundbreaking for The Promise Center is scheduled for May 2024, near Mother’s Day.
Albert Hodges, the president and CEO of Room At The Inn, emphasized the great need for The Promise Center, a fitting name for the promise he and others made to women and children at the agency’s inception.
“At Room At The Inn, we see firsthand the increased need for the care and services The Promise Center will provide,” he said. “This is a watershed moment for our agency and the many single mothers and children we will serve at the new center.”
Father Carter said Kernersville, often called the “Heart of the Triad,” is the perfect location to serve single mothers in the 12-county area.
He added, “I am also convinced that with the excellence of the current and future programs that are offered, Room At The Inn can be a blueprint to be imitated throughout the country.”
— Annie Ferguson
Learn more
At www.roominnorg/partnersonthejourney: Learn more and donate to Room At The Inn’s future Promise Center