Welcome Home Ministries

When I was released from prison this organization walked along side of me through trials and tribulation and celebrated the journey. I am forever grateful for my new found life..

welcome home ministries help me with dental and helped me share my smile with more than myself it also gave me something to believe in GOD and I have been blessed ever since. I just want to Thank those who were there for me.Thank You from the bottom of my Heart!!!!!! Toni Perkins 2005

I meet the founder Reverend Carmen Warner Robbins when I was in jail being sentenced to prison. After I did a 2 year sentenced Reverend Carmen Warner Robbins came back into my life with a vision and a dream. She shared that dream with me stating that she wanted to know what women being released from jail and prison needed upon their release. I shared with her the needs that I was facing since I was just released and we began to serve others with the same needs. And Welcome Home took off from there! Welcome Home has been so instrumental in my life that I have since moved from San Diego to Fresno where I have started Welcome Home Central Valley and serve women and men the prison in Central California while networking with Welcome Home ministries.

My experience with Welcome Home is one of a professional capacity. I became part of the team approx. 2.5 years ago and it has changed my life both professionally and personally. I have never worked for an organization where you could be so free to be who you are and share with other's the awesomeness of God. I have seen ladies lives changed dramtically as they have come to know the Lord as well as experience the extended family they acquire when they become a Welcome Home woman. Just as the Lord says, "I will never leave nor forsake you" that is what the ladies experience with Welcome Home. Even if they make a mistake, Welcome Home will always be there. Michelle Harrison, MA, CCJP Behavioral Health Counselor

Welcome Home Ministries offers loving support and encouragement to incarcerated women that society would like to ignore. We come along side a woman in jail or prison and offer her our experience, strength and hope with resources to assist her in her new journey of new life in recovery and re-birth. I have been blessed with seven years of serving lovely and courageous women.

Hello, I have had the opportunity to utilize the services of Welcome Home Ministries approximately 8 yrs ago. Due to the nature of my Profession I have chosen to remain annonymous. Today, I take great pleasure in assisting this fine agency in their endeavours as well as receiving the blessings that they have to offer. I can honestly say that WHM is an important asset to our community and is in the process of expanding its services. Thank You WHM and continue to march. Sincerely, A grateful recipient

Welcome Home Ministries (WHM)is a wonderful organization where you can witness beautiful transformations in the lives of women who have previously been incarcerated. WHM works with women who are willing to and want to change their life for the better. I have witnessed the mentors and staff of Welcome Home walk alongside these women providing nationally recognized excellence in mentorship. WHM is a dynamic and loving organization that is dedicated to rebuilding the lives of women and guiding them into a fully restored and successful life.

During my committment to the recovery program I am affliated with, I was given an opportunity to work with Welcome Home Ministires in a professional arrangement. Welcome Home needed help with moving their offices and our program offered to help them, showing them that we would like to give back to the community. At the time I got involved, I was re-aquainted with many women I had once known in the past and who have now redirected their lives, through God, this ministry and their recovery. I was very impressed at who these women have become, their strength, their courage and perseverance. This ministry provides peer support as well as a loving connection with a reverend who has never given up on any of the ladies. The reverend has become their teacher, mentor and friend and shows them that they can do anything and their dreams are their goals.

As part of a community outreach/advocacy project for our graduate counseling program my cohorts and I conducted research on various non-profits working to assist women in the criminal justice system. This included women currently incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and/or on probation. We were impressed with the effectiveness achieved by the peer counselors with their abilities to motivate and inspire change among the women they served. After observing first hand the work they do among these women we are committed to help them in their mission.

I was helped while serving some time in a San Diego County Jail in 1995. Reverand Carmen helped pray me through a very tough time in my life. I had been getting in trouble since I was 12 years old as I was an addict at a very young age. I was in and out of juvinile halls, the Youth Authority and jails until I was 36 years old. Welcome Home showed me another way of life through the love of God and helped me learn to love my self. I am now able to help other women who are hurting the same way I had been hurting getting involved in Welcome Home. It's like a ripple in a pond. Because these women have a resource to break that chain, whole families are changed. God works that way you know. He breaks that cycle of addiction and restores families. That is His favorite thing to do.

Welcome Home Ministries helped empower me with its great support and Christ like love and dedication. I first learned about Welcome Home Ministries when I went to jail for the first, of several times, in my life. Other women in my dorm were talking about a mentor, Donna Nickel, saying she had helped them by just being there listening and providing support in such a sad time of their life. I really needed someone to talk to and someone who could give me a hand up. I put my name on a list asking for Donna to contact me, very soon after that Donna came and met with me and has never left my side. Unfortunately, after that first meeting with Donna I returned to jail and then went to prison, but Donna was faithful to believe in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. I now have 2 years 4 months free from drugs and crime. Welcome Home Ministries plays a MAJOR part in my support group!!

I am a former drug addict/criminal and have spent may years incacerated. I made a chioce to change my life and look for a higher power in God. To date I have 15 years clean and crime free. Welcome Home Ministries went to our local Sheriff and asked if we could come in to the jails and support the women in their transition. After 4 years of committment, perserverance and compassion, I was able to witness over 300 women make positive changes and new choices in their lives. I earned the respect and support from the Sheriff and his staff, and began a working relationship with them. I was granted permission to have a slected unit to begin gorups and re-entry planning with the ladies in the institution. The women we serve have lost their children, homes, dignity and hope. We restore that because we are their peers who have not only been in their shoes, but who are also able to encourage their success. Welcome Home Ministries has the compassion to help the women overcome their obstacles by showing them how it is possible to acheive their goals. We do not do it for them, we walk along side of them and coach, and mentor them. I am currently volunteering until there is financial support to complete ouR work.