Imagine starting a new phase of your life with no resources or help, being alone in a new world with no one to turn to.

     That’s what some people face when they are released from prison and are trying to restart their lives and move on from their past.

     For Stephanie and Johnnie Turner, this has been a big problem they’ve seen in their mission work in the state of Mississippi. The couple has worked with children and women in the Jackson area and has seen a need for more care than just handouts and a temporary place to stay.

     That’s why the couple is working to start The Darlene Slater Rehabilitation Center for Women, or the Doll’s House, in Brookhaven.

     “We’ve seen that the children want to be back with their mothers and the mothers want to be back with their children, but many of the mothers don’t have the skills to make it on their own,” Johnnie Turner said. “We want to give them a place to learn skills and get into their new life.”

     The Turners have worked in prison ministries with their church, First Baptist of Jackson, and also with the Mississippi Children’s Home. They have made several key observations during their work.

     “Support systems are a problem for many women,” Stephanie Turner said. “Many women lack them and when they get out of prison they go right back in.”

     The couple is working on raising the funds to start the Doll’s House on Beltline Road in Brookhaven. The facility there would have room for 10 women at first, and then could be expanded.

     The property would be turned in to an agribusiness that the women will use as therapy.

     “Working with plants and animals softens people’s hearts and opens their minds,” Stephanie Turner said. “Some people need to be softened before we can reach out to them.”

     Their program would last for two years, during which time the women would be taught computer, clerical and customer service skills to prepare them for being on their own.

     “The program will contain three phases of rehabilitation for women,” Johnnie Turner said. “It would start with deliverance, then go to healing before an empowerment stage. Many programs offer deliverance or healing, but fail to empower women.”

     The Doll’s House would not be an emergency shelter, but could point people in the right direction for finding resources to help them.

     The project’s fundraising goal is $785,000, which would be enough to secure the property and get the center started. The Turners have raised about 20 percent of the needed funds.

     “By the third year the Doll’s House should be able to sustain itself from our agribusiness,” Stephanie Turner said.

     The couple plans to continue to meet with people from Lincoln County and is working on a fundraiser event for late July. For more information about the project, contact the Turners at 601-291-8757 or send donations to P.O. Box 3172, Brookhaven, 39603.

     “We think once we get things going and get the word out in the area, our project will really take off,” Johnnie Turner said.