Hopes Fuel Dream To Build Shelter For Women
3 AREA CHURCHES HELP WOMAN IN HER MISSION

BRANDON - Becky Trent is on a mission: helping women in crisis.

And her ministry, counseling women fighting addictions or depression or who are just coming out of prison, is getting a new home. She hopes construction will start soon on a shelter for up to six women, a project sponsored by three churches.

"We want to be a center for excellence, not a flophouse," she said.

Helping women "find employment and become self-sufficient" is one of her primary goals, Trent said.

The property chosen for the home is a half acre off East Bloomingdale Ave. Proximity to nearby offices and businesses is important, Trent said, because volunteers will drive some of the women to jobs or on job searches.

Some women don't have cars or lost their driver's licenses because of their criminal records, she said.

Trent said sometimes she has a hard time containing her excitement for the project. Two weeks ago a group of volunteers demolished a house to clear the property, and when the Dumpsters for the debris were delivered, Trent shouted, "Hallelujah!"

A retired Trent said she started her support program two years ago after talking with women in the Hillsborough County Jail.

In jail, she said, women have a roof over their heads and three meals a day. But often that's a lot more than they have when they're released.

Trent said the shelter, tentatively named "A Freedom Center for Women," will offer those women and others in crisis a place to live and a supportive environment so they won't return to crime, drugs and other self-destructive behavior.

The property already has been purchased with donations from Trent's former colleagues and other supporters.

Bell Shoals Baptist and Kings Avenue Baptist churches in Brandon and Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa are sponsoring construction of the shelter.

Their fundraisers, along with individual donations, have brought in $15,000. The project needs another $30,000 to start construction, Trent said.

A former prison inmate and friend of Trent's, Joni Morton, said there's a critical need for the ministry.

"So many girls have no family and no home," Morton said.

She said her church and ministries like Trent's were important to her as she prepared for release.

"God brought Becky into my path," she said.

A retired manager for Quest Diagnostics, Trent said she launched her ministry, B. Encouraged Freedom Ministries, in June 2000 because she has "a heart for the oppressed." She started working with women in prison and in street ministries, and then, after taking early retirement, became a full-time evangelist.

For information about the shelter, call Trent at (813) 546-6447.