By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
MILFORD — A new recovery home for women who are stepping beyond the walls of incarceration officially opened Saturday in Milford.
The LITE House Recovery Home on Catherine Street in Milford is an offshoot of LITE – Living in Transition Effectively – a volunteer organization dedicated to helping inmates prepare to re-enter society after being in jail or in prison.
Dozens of supporters of LITE on Saturday held a ribbon cutting and open house at the facility, which is adjacent to the Milford Methodist Meeting House where LITE has offices.
The home has five beds plus a day bed for short-term visits, according to Tammy Cotton, who worked to establish the program with her husband, Chris.
LITE, and the recovery house, aim to help inmates prepare for and adjust to life after prison with the goal of cutting down the percentage of those who end up back in jail.
The volunteer group has been working in the Kosciusko County Jail for nearly two years with assorted services including classes and access to more than 4,000 books.
Outside the jail, the group provides assistance in resurrecting personal paperwork that is often lost in the shuffle of incarceration but is necessary in finding employment, insurance and together basic needs.
A fleet of volunteers also helps with transportation needs for former inmates.
Tammy Cotton has also established a network among recovery homes. She’s identified about 40 homes in a 100-mile radius and is in touch with about 30 of them.
The home has two residents already and she has worked with five others to find homes that work for them.
“We’re all communicating and we’re connected so that if I have somebody who isn’t working out here or this isn’t the best place for her for her perspective, then I have all these other homes … that I can call,” she said.
Previously, most networks operated independently. Cotton said she thinks that’s changing.
“I think it’s going to start happening more and more because it’s a fix for a problem that we have where women (and men too) were getting kicked out because they broke a rule … so where are they going? Who knows where they are going? They’re ending up back in jail primarily. We’re trying to reduce that recidivism and keep them out of a jail and keep them in a program,” she said.
Supporters of LITE were joined by members of the Syracuse Wawasee Chamber of Commerce as well as Indiana Methodist Church Bishop Julius Trimble.
The Milford Methodist Meeting House was established recently after the Church Catherine Steet closed and hosts a variety of counseling programs.
Supporters of LITE were joined by members of the Syracuse Wawasee Chamber of Commerce as well as Indiana Methodist Church Bishop Julius Trimble who is pictured above wearing a suit. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.
