Hope 139, a nonprofit that provides residences and resources for mothers who are at risk or pregnant, plans to open its first three cottages in north Athens this summer.
Shelley Tanner, a University of Georgia graduate who holds a degree in nursing from Emory University and has volunteered with Mercy Health Center and Kupendwa Ministries, founded Hope 139.
“I want these women to have hope,” Tanner said. “I want them to have hope for their lives, hope for their children’s life.”
The Oconee County-based organization also desires to lessen the strain on the foster care program through giving birth mothers the help and support needed to keep their children. Tanner said she started this organization after she and her husband, Russ Tanner, adopted their son; they have four children.
“Kids are meant to be with their biological parents; that’s how we were created to be,” Tanner said. “Although adoption is beautiful and it is such a calling and a place, it is because a bond is broken, so that was one thing, just realizing the need for biological parents to be with their children.”
Hope 139 awaited in early May the certificate of occupancy from Athens-Clarke County for its first three cottages, which will house single mothers and their children.
The property’s master plan includes 12 cottages with community areas, including a pavilion, for the mothers and their children. The residents will be selected through an interview process. Hope 139 will offer a two-year program that includes assistance in completing education, job skills, counseling services and other support.
Most of the materials and items in the three first cottages were donated to Hope 139. Even the land was donated at a time when Tanner and her team struggled to find a site.
“We couldn’t find property, and I was very discouraged and felt like God was closing doors,” Tanner said.
Clarke County officials said they wouldn’t approve the site and rejected other options, so the team asked what could be approved. Officials said a property like the former site planned for the People of Hope project would work because it was already on bus lines and properly zoned. When the official told Tanner the address, the builder who happened to be present in the offices that day said he owned it. He donated the 17 acres to Hope 139 the next day.
“I was like, OK, God, point taken. I guess this is what you want, and we’ll keep on,” Tanner said. “So, we developed this site plan, and it was approved by the Clarke County Board of Commissioners and the mayor unanimously.”
The faith-based nonprofit recently named April Mashburn as board president and expanded the board to eight members.
The organization’s name was inspired by Psalm 139 in the Bible.
“It talks about God forming us in the womb, creating us before we were even known that he’s already created us. He already has a plan for our lives that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made,” Tanner said. “And I just thought those verses spoke not only to the child or children that the mother has, but also to her life.”
One of the cottages is named Jodi’s House after one of Tanner’s friends, Jodi Whitaker, who died suddenly in October 2023.
“She had just turned 40, so she was young,” Tanner said, sitting in the kitchen of Jodi’s House. “Everything that was donated in here was given by people who either (knew) her or (worked) with her.”
Tanner acknowledged how hard it has been to start Hope 139, but said she views the challenges as a testament to faith.
“I believe when you’re attacked from the enemy, it means you’re doing what God’s called you to do,” Tanner said. “I truly believe that we should hate it when we feel those attacks, but we should also consider it joy and understand it as an honor that you’re being faithful and obedient.”
Jordyn Mobley is a graduate student; she produced this story in the religion reporting course. The story also was published in The Oconee Enterprise.
