LEWISTON — The Center for Wisdom’s Women is inviting the community to virtual celebrations Saturday and and Sunday to mark the first year anniversary of Sophia’s House, a women’s residential home.
Sophia’s House provides rooms and support for up to two years, rent free, for women recovering from severe trauma such as incarceration, exploitation, trafficking and addiction.
At 8 p.m. Saturday a concert feating Carrie Newcomer will be streamed. The artist has 17 nationally released albums and is described as a “prairie mystic.” Newcomer earned an Emmy for the PBS special, “An Evening with Carrie Newcomer.”
On Sunday at 3 p.m. friends and supporters are invited to a virtual tea party streamed from Sophia’s House. The tea will include a video tour of the house, the launch of the Klara Tammany Legacy Fund, poetry and thanks, and celebrations to all those who helped make the house a reality. Tickets for the concert can be obtained at www.wisdomswomen.org/events
Several doors on the second floor of Sophia’s House in Lewiston are not used because many walls in the former tiny rooms were removed to make larger apartments on the second floor. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
Sophia’s House, at 143 Blake St., opened a year ago and is a house built by the Lewiston-Auburn community.
Wisdom’s director and others decided six years ago that the drop-in day center a block away “wasn’t enough to meet the needs the women were bringing with them,” organizer Klara Tammany said. “We tried to figure out what was needed and what to do about it.”
They set their sights on a residence allowing up to six women a place to live along with healing support and career education.
St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center offered to donate the former St. Patrick Convent, if they could raise enough money for major renovations. What followed was feasible studies, a capital campaign drive, applications to grants, and 18 months of renovation.
“We had huge support from the community,” Tammany said.
The 100-year-old building needed a lot of work, to the tune of $1.7 million.
Everyone from businesses such as Norway Savings Bank to individuals to churches all pitched in.
Renovation and construction was provided by Platz Associates and Hebert Construction, both companies “did not charge us what it cost,” Tammany said. Individuals and groups made donations, large and small. Sophia’s House was able to secure some government grants.
“We’ve really come through,” said Sue Kingsland, executive director of the Center for Wisdom’s Women. “I’m very proud of what we’re doing. We were just really fortunate to have a steadfast group of volunteers and companions who work both with Sophia’s House and with the center.”
A weaving hangs in a hallway at Sophia’s House in Lewiston. It’s one of many projects residents work on. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
Sophia’s House is modeled after Thistle Farms in Tennessee, a women’s center founded in 1997 that offers holistic support for women survivors of trafficking, prostitution and addiction.
Sophia’s House has also been accepted into the Thistle Farms network and named as one of five sister agencies in the country to be placed in that group’s accelerator program, Kingsland said, which will help Sophia’s House with planning and upscaling.
Soon after Sophia’s House opened, “Covid shut everything down,” Tammany said. The house went about its business of helping women, weaving around the obstacles of COVID-19.
Beginning the venture during a pandemic was a challenge, Tammany said. “We had to rethink about everything we had planned. We couldn’t have outside partners coming in. Enrichment programs just vanished.” There was lots of Zooming.
“We have learned, and survived,” she said.
During a tour Friday, Tammany showed off the three floors of renovated space, which includes the Norway Savings Bank gleaming industrial kitchen, where, after the pandemic, it will be rented for functions to generate revenue. There’s a large dining room for group dinners and gatherings.
A former chapel is a meditation/reading room with lots of purples, “the color of wisdom,” Tammany said. Three crystal tears hang representing women who have died before they could get help the house now provides. New glass balls will be hung for women who complete the program “and fly away,” Tammany said with a smile. There will be remembering and celebrating.
On the second floor are five apartments rented out to supporters. The rent helps pay for heat and lights. On the third floor are six private rooms for women who live there for up to two years. By the time they leave they will have healed, paid off debts, developed job skills and confidence, she said.
During the past year “the change and growth in them is amazing,” Tammany said. Living with love and support to rebuild their lives allows the women “to become who they really are,” she said. “Love heals, period.”
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