Ormond Church houses young women leaving foster care

Rich and Brandi Tidwell have begun work in Ormond Beach they hope see spread across the country, one young woman at a time. They are running Legacy House, a home for female teens who have aged out of the foster care system and have no place to live.

Ormond Church, for which Rich Tidwell serves as founding pastor, opened the home on the beachside March 31. The relatively new, small congregation — an offshoot of  Ponce Church in Ponce Inlet — meets at the Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center.

“When we launched the church Oct. 4, 2015, we simultaneously launched the idea for the home,” said Tidwell. “James 1:27 says, ‘Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress …’ There’s a special group of people who seem to have distress, women with children and children without parents.”

The name Legacy House was selected with the goal to help restore their legacy, explained Tidwell.

“Statistically their offspring becomes orphans. We want to change their legacy and the legacy of their potential children, to end that cycle and heal that brokenness,” he said.

The church purchased a property that includes a house with two apartments. The Tidwell family, including 1 1/2-year-old Reinette and a baby due in February, lives in the house, while the two apartments currently house three 19-year-old women and one woman's 8-month-old daughter. An additional young woman will soon be joining the group, and a housemother is in the plans.

The residents live are expected to attend school, either obtaining their GED or enrolling at Daytona State College, follow a curfew, show respect and accept no male visitors.

Children aging out of foster care receive paid college tuition through the state. Legacy House allows young women to stay rent-free for up to six years to complete their education, followed by six additional months to adjust to a new job and living conditions, explained Tidwell.

“We like the idea of having them here for years and becoming family for them,” he said. “We eat dinner together, talk, go to church and we provide transportation.”

Brandi Tidwell is the primary transporter to school and to work.

“That’s my day,” she said. “I’m a taxi, it’s neat. It gives me the opportunity to talk with them. We’re trying to meet their material needs and their emotional and spiritual needs as well.”

The day Zoe Wiley, 19, arrived at the home after having spent the night prior in her car, she discovered she was pregnant. She had aged out of a group home in Deltona and currently has a part-time job at Lowe’s Home Improvement with plans to attend DSC.

“I like the family dinners and stuff like that,” she said. “And spending time like a normal family.”

Wiley introduced her friend, Jacqueline Munson, 19, to the home after she had been living on friends’ floors and couches with her 8-month-old daughter.

“That day, I was going to be kicked out because their apartment didn’t allow it. Zoe told me about this place and there was an opening,” Munson said.

Munson is enrolled in DSC working toward her associate of arts degree.

Shannon Clark, also 19, and a roommate, is completing her high school requirements online with plans to continue her education at DSC.

“I’ve been in foster care since I was 7 1/2. They’re very supportive. It’s like a family, it’s peaceful,” she said of her new home.

Part of the experience of living at the Legacy includes participation in Accelerate, a program designed for young people who have aged out of foster care at Calvary Christian Center in Ormond Beach, and additional community efforts. The girls recently accompanied members of Ponce Church to feed the homeless.

“We want them to be involved in the community as well, helping those stuck on the streets. They realize they are only a few steps away from there,” he said.

The ministry is patterned after the Covenant House, a nationwide ministry that provides shelter and services to children and youth who are homeless or at great risk.

“We love their structure, but we want to focus specifically on foster care,” said Rich Tidwell.

The plans for Legacy House include expanding the care in Ormond Beach, then on to include Volusia County, Florida, then across the United States, he explained.

“All the while we want the girls living in this home to succeed,” he said. “We will work out the kinks and apply it to additional homes.”

The home’s covering, Ormond Church, has a congregation of 15 to 20 individuals.

“It’s a lot bigger than us. It’s not like we have this big church,” said Tidwell. “It’s God moving in people’s hearts.”

Oasis Christ Fellowship in Ormond Beach provided manpower through its On the Move program to assist in building preparations prior to moving in to the facility. A few pastors are on board, and several individuals have offered assistance.

“We’re thinking this can be the ministry to unite churches. It’s something we can all agree upon, we love Jesus and we love orphans,” Tidwell said.

Angie Molina, a local single mother of four, appreciates the efforts of Legacy House and volunteers her time there. With three grown children and one at home, Molina desired to attend mission trips to other countries. Because of a custody situation, she was unable to leave the country with her youngest child. She now fosters children in her home.

“I started fostering because I wanted to do mission work and I knew I could do it right here,” Molina said.

She has since adopted three children previously in the foster care system and is currently fostering two babies.

“There is not enough families, even for the young kids,” she said. “Many become homeless. They get college for free, but most don’t take advantage of it because they have nowhere to live. I see this as a necessity to get to the next point in their lives, to better their lives and not go back into the system.”

Tidwell shared some statistics regarding foster care:

• Each year, an average of 1,290 children age out of foster care in Florida according to the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

• Youth between the ages of 18 and 23 are the fastest-growing homeless population in Florida according to the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council.

• According to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 60 percent of young people in the business of sex trafficking and prostitution were once in foster care.

• 48 percent of homeless youth between ages 18-23 performed paid sex acts because they lacked a safe place to stay according to Covenant House in NYC.

“A huge part of our biblical motivation is this; God loves orphans, loves adoption, and has called us to care for the fatherless. We want to do our part and love orphans like Jesus does,” said Tidwell. “When you learn about God’s love on a consistent basis, it has an effect on you. It is peaceful.”