FCC Provides Care Through a Unique Clothing Boutique
Every year, many of the young girls that come to Maryhurst, a child welfare agency located in Louisville, KY, show up with little more than the clothes on their backs. With very little to claim as their own and no place to call home, Maryhurst is a place of new beginnings for girls who have been traumatized by unimaginable abuse.
The young women live at Maryhurst for 9 - 12 months, receiving a wide range of clinical services to help them heal and come to terms with their previous mistreatment. Maryhurst provides on-campus education and independent living training that helps young women helping them heal and find hope that the future will be better than the past. In 2018, Maryhurst celebrated 175 years in continuous operation, making them the oldest child welfare agency in Kentucky and more than 80% of the children who go through the program, leave successfully.
In 2017, First Christian Church of Louisville provided a Wholeness Ministry Grand to assist with the purchase of clothes for these children. Due to another gift from the Louisville community in 2017, a garage owned by Maryhurst was renovated and has now become the "Maryhurst Boutique", a bright welcoming storage space for clothing and other items. In 2018, FCC was thrilled to offer a second Wholeness Ministry Grant to stock the new boutique with staples such as underwear, socks, tennis shoes, pants and t-shirts for those admissions who have significant and immediate clothing needs.
The girls have no reason to trust the staff at Maryhurst when they first arrive. Sadly, their experience has been that the adults in their lives who were supposed to take care of them and keep them safe, failed to do so. Slowly and very intentionally, the Maryhurst staff reach out to them, risking connection and inviting the girls to do the same. When the girls are finally able to trust the Maryhurst staff, a shift happens and miracles occur. On aspect of this connection, is creating a welcome baskets for every child admitted from the items in the boutique. The staff understands that coming to a strange, new place is scary and a a welcome basket is a small way of saying, “We’re glad you’re here. You’re important to us.”
The wholeness grant used to fund this ministry was made possible through your faithful financial support of our church and its ministries and help fund a variety of efforts to make our world a better place.