Lindsey Norton on Hope House
Lindsey Norton is the founder of Hope House, Tennessee’s first home for teen moms and their children. After recognizing the need for housing and support, she created a space focused on empowerment and breaking cycles of poverty.
About Lindsey Norton
Lindsey Norton, a former labor and delivery nurse, is the founder of Hope House, Tennessee’s first home for teen moms and their children. After seeing the gap in housing options for young mothers, she took action to create a space focused on empowerment, education, and breaking cycles of poverty. Hope House, expanding in West Nashville, offers housing and case management services to support young moms.
Founded in 2019, Hope House is Tennessee’s only home dedicated to teen moms and their children. The program provides a two-year residential experience for mothers aged 16-22, offering stable housing, growth plans, parenting and financial literacy classes, counseling, and spiritual discipleship. It helps moms complete high school, gain employment, and achieve independence.
In addition to housing six moms, Hope House serves as a resource center for teen moms in the community, supporting those outside the program as well. Opening in Fall 2025, Hope House is focused on transforming lives and breaking generational poverty. Lindsey is also active with Young Lives Nashville, a branch of the larger Young Life ministry. Established in the 90’s, Young Lives Nashville focuses on supporting teen moms and is one the few nonprofits in Nashville dedicated to serving teenage parents.
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Spencer: Norton. Founder and executive director of Hope House, welcome to Signature Required.
Lindsey: Thank you. Thanks for having me today.
Carli: So we have a lot of friends in common, so I know a little bit about your story and your journey to this, but tell me what is Hope [00:01:00] House?
Lindsey: Hope House is Tennessee's only home for teenage parents.
Lindsey: So, um, girls that get pregnant in high school ages 16, up to 22 can come and live in our home. We have 6 bedrooms for mom and baby. It's the only one in Tennessee. It's the only home in, in our state that will house a mom and baby together if they're under the age of 18.
Carli: Really? Okay. Explain that to me.
Carli: What are the laws prohibiting other shelters or other places from allowing mom and baby when they're that young to be together?
Lindsey: Yeah, it's a great question. A lot of nonprofits, serve. People 18 and up because that is adulthood. and so there, I don't know the reason why. I don't know if it's licensure or complication or what it might be, but, there's just no other place in our state that does it.
Lindsey: there are many states around us that have teen mom homes, but we specifically don't have one here.
Carli: Oh my gosh. Okay. So how did you even come across this need to say, okay, I gotta build a home for these young women?
Lindsey: Yeah, it's a great [00:02:00] question. Um, I started out as a labor and delivery nurse and I took care of a lot of teen moms who,
Lindsey: when I would go into the hospital, sometimes I'd be the only person at their bedside when they went to deliver their baby. And so that kind of opened my eyes to teen pregnancy and just the lack of support that exists for women that are young and have children. and so I got involved with an organization called Young Lives.
Lindsey: Which, um, we have a branch here in Nashville and I served as a director for young Lives for, almost eight years. And day one on the job I was helping a teen mom move out of an apartment she was being evicted from. So she'd gotten emancipated and was able to live on her own, but unfortunately, she just didn't have the support system or the structure that she needed to learn, to know how to pay the bills on time or to get to and from work.
Lindsey: Um, and so very quickly she. Found herself facing an eviction. And so from day one on the job working with teen moms that the need for housing was evident.
Lindsey: So, we actually had two moms that ended up being sex trafficked because they needed. A place to lay their head that night. So, honestly, [00:03:00] I, I couldn't ignore the need because I was seeing it so often just in my job.
Hmm.
Carli: So you were a labor and delivery nurse. And I have a really good friend that was, uh, that is a doctor at Vanderbilt, and she on rotation, just as they were in her training, she went to OB and she said, Carli, this is the hardest rotation.
Carli: I said, how can that, how can that be that that's the hardest? and she said, because of what you're talking about. Mm-hmm. The number of 12, 13, 14-year-old girls. Mm-hmm. They are there with nobody.
Carli: Is there any particular moment or story while you were there for that year that was. Made you think? I always think when you jump out into something new, most of us have an experience. It's like not another day, not another minute. Not another hour. Mm-hmm. I can't stand the status quo anymore. Mm-hmm. Did you have one of those experiences?
Lindsey: I've had a couple of those. but making the. Jumped from nursing to working in nonprofit with teen moms. I did have a moment. I actually, after I worked as a labor and [00:04:00] delivery nurse, I worked as an oncology, a pediatric oncology nurse, which is childhood cancer. and my last year as a nurse, um, I had two patients who were, one was 16 and one was 18, and their children had cancer.
Lindsey: And again, I saw that, that lack of support, they would come into the hospital with their very sick child and. I, I was often the only person there that was asking them how they were doing. There was no one else showing up for them. Mm-hmm. one of the 16-year-old, her baby ended up passing away and it was at the funeral that I really had an eye-opening experience of like, wow, I'm walking through death with teen moms.
Lindsey: I need to be walking through life with teen moms. And so that's kind of when I decided like, I think I'm supposed to work with teen moms full time.
Carli: I think that's really powerful. Especially I think if the Lord calls us to the work he's calling,
Lindsey: yeah.
Carli: All of us. He's not just calling us. Absolutely.
Carli: So you are working with Young lives and you said that's a nonprofit in Nashville. There's a [00:05:00] chapter in Nashville. Yes. For people like me that don't know a lot about it, I know just enough to be dangerous or people listening that have literally never heard of that I've heard of Young Life, like Christian Camp.
Carli: Mm-hmm.
Lindsey: Is
Carli: this different than that?
Lindsey: It's a branch of the bigger Young Life ministry. Okay. So back in the nineties, when Teen Pregnancy. The rates started rising young. Life started a branch of young life, specifically tailored to teen moms. So we have a branch of that in Nashville. it's actually an international ministry, so there's young lives all over the world.
Lindsey: Um, but in Nashville specifically, it is one of the only nonprofits that serves teenage parents. so they meet monthly and they go into schools and provide education and mentors to moms in high school.
Carli: Hmm. You're saying it's in Nashville, so it's in Nashville? Mm-hmm. North, south, east, west, not Middle Tennessee.
Carli: Are there any resources for those teen moms
Lindsey: outside of Middle Tennessee? Yeah. so we actually have young lives all across the state. Okay. So we have one in Memphis in Cookville, Murfreesboro Smyrna. So we [00:06:00] have it kind of, we have different branches all across the state. So there are resources that way.
Carli: So somebody's listening and they know somebody that could just really use that support. Mm-hmm. There are resources. There are, yes. In the state, it's probably just not as well known as we wish it probably so. Yeah.
Carli: So it sounds like when you get involved with these young women, they've already made. The choice to hang on to their pregnancy to ha keep their baby or am I wrong? Do you talk to children or counsel them through that choice?
Lindsey: It's both Anne, a lot of times. we meet them after the fact, after they've made the decision, but we've walked, I've walked through many a decision with teen parents, um, and often it, sometimes they reach out simply in those moments of desperation when they first find out.
Lindsey: And so we've walked through a lot of really hard. Conversations and counseling to help moms decide what to choose. interestingly enough, a lot of teen moms are really excited to be parents. Um, there's, there's so much energy you have in high school as a high school [00:07:00] student and so often for these women, they have not really felt loved.
Lindsey: And so to have something that is their own that they can love and that can love them back, it's actually a beautiful. It can be a beautiful situation and really the thing that changes their life for the better. Um, and so that's really why we are so passionate. What we do is because we kind of get to go in, in the very beginning stages and cultivate that bond and help help that mom as she progresses into deeper parenthood.
Lindsey: so yeah, we, we do meet them in both situations all the time.
Carli: There is and has been. As well as time a stigma around young women that get pregnant, especially when they're teens or outta wedlock, if you will. Especially in the South. Mm-hmm. We're living in the Bible belt and if we're just gonna address it head on, what do you wish people knew?
Carli: Yeah. About these precious souls that are walking through this really intense decision. Mm-hmm. And this really intense transition. [00:08:00] What, instead of just snapping to what you think these girls or young women are like, what do you wish people understood?
Lindsey: Yeah. I hear a lot that, um. Teen moms are just too immature to help.
Lindsey: They're just high school girls. Their brain isn't fully formed, can't help 'em, need to wait till they're older. And I would heavily disagree with that because like I said, when they find out they're pregnant in high school, sometimes it's the turning point in their life. most oftentimes it is the turning point where they go, okay, I've gotta, I've gotta care for this child now.
Lindsey: and so I, I would want people to know that. Teen moms are actually really amazing mothers. I've had many moms, even as I, you know, was pregnant or had my first child reach out and, you know, ask if I had the right developmental toys for my baby, or ask what kind of bottles I was using, or, you know, all the mom questions that come, like they, they are reaching out to me and asking me how I was doing as a parent.
Lindsey: So they're really compassionate. They're amazing mothers [00:09:00] to their kids. Their kids absolutely adore them and for a lot of them they're getting to be the parent they wish they had had growing up. and so that's probably what I would really want people to know is that they're much more mature than you would think, and they're actually amazing moms to their kids.
Carli: In doing research, one of the things that I know that you strive to do for these young women is help. Break generational cycles. Mm-hmm. I would say I, I guess I don't know the research, but I would, I would imagine that a lot of the young women in this situation have maybe come from a place, you said a lot of them maybe don't feel loved, or they're trying to change how they parent based on how they were parented.
Carli: Mm-hmm. So what are some tools that you, and that's probably not the case for everybody, I mean. No two women are the same, right. No two stories the same.
Lindsey: Mm-hmm.
Carli: But if you are trying to help them break some of these generational bonds, what are some tools that you're giving the women that you're serving?
Lindsey: Yes. That's a great question. I, it's. It is not necessarily tools. A lot of them already know that [00:10:00] the, the cycles that they're trying to break, I know a lot of them really wanna finish high school and go to college. That's something that their parent may not have done. Um, and so I just had a girl graduate from a four year university and she's the first person in her entire extended family that has graduated from a four year university.
Lindsey: And so, um. For her. She's, she's not only graduated from college, but she's broken a generational, cycle and her daughter now gets to see her as a college graduate. And so we really encourage education, that mentorship that we. Come alongside them and help them decide what do you want life to look like in three years, in five years?
Lindsey: What do you wanna do with your life? how can we help you get a stable job where you are making enough to support you and your family and you're not having to live in the projects? probably a hundred percent of the girls we work with don't want to live in the projects. They wanna live somewhere else.
Lindsey: They want their own place and so how can we help you get the tools you need to get there? 'cause we know you can.
Carli: When I was doing [00:11:00] research in our time to talk today, it touched on something that my husband, Spencer and I are really passionate about, and it's financial literacy.
Lindsey: Mm-hmm.
Carli: And the basic building blocks of what is credit?
Carli: How do you apply for a credit card? How do you use one safely? How do you get a mortgage? How do I budget? I have my job here. I have my expenses here. Could you talk a little bit about how you help prepare these women financially with, with those types of tools?
Lindsey: So, in young lives, the way that we kind of approached budgeting, financial literacy is really just bringing the elephant into the room.
Lindsey: when you. Build a relationship with somebody, you kind of have the freedom to ask hard questions. And so for moms that I've walked really close with, I've been able to say, you know, Hey you, I just saw you, you got your nails done you asked me if I could help you with your rent last week, like, what's going on there?
Lindsey: and so that kind of mindset is just something that's not really being. Talked about, um, in our school system, even in my home, I grew up in a two-parent home, very supportive.
[00:12:00] talking about money wasn't something we really did either in our school setting. And so really just educating moms like, how do we think ahead here?
Lindsey: How do we plan ahead? And oftentimes we see such great success when we say, Hey, put a little back and save. they will feel so proud of themselves when they get a month out and they have some money built up. and so that is something we talk about a lot. I'm real big. I don't, I don't give money, to them.
Lindsey: I. I wanna empower them to figure out how, how do we get you in a job that's gonna help you make enough to where you can save enough so you can do X, Y, or Z. Um, another thing we see a lot with these, these moms is again, because of the lack of education that's being presented as they're growing up, they are not aware that when you buy a car and you take out a loan, if you miss the payment, your credit score is hit.
Lindsey: And so we've had. We've had to really help a lot of moms with their credit scores because at a young age they needed transportation and they didn't understand what they were signing up for. and so again, it's just kind of that lack of education. And so what we're, what we've tried to do, in the young lives [00:13:00] world and is, is really just try to educate them on here's what you're signing up for and here's what that looks like, and here's the consequence if you don't pay this.
Lindsey: Hmm. the same is true for housing. So if you have an eviction on your record in the state of Tennessee, it will stay on for seven years. Meaning finding a landlord to take a risk on you is very unlikely and so whenever a mom gets her place and, and if she ever ask me, Hey, can you help me pay the light bill up front?
Lindsey: I have a conversation with her and say, Hey, I could do that, but I. I want you to be able to do that because if you can't pay your bills, it will stay with you for a very long time and so it really is out of a deep care for them that we try to educate.
Carli: One of my favorite things you've even said so far is that through relationships.
Carli: You earn the right to have hard conversations. Yes. And I think when you have a compassionate heart and you see a need. Mm-hmm. The first impulse is, oh, it would be compassionate to pay that light bill.
Lindsey: Mm
Carli: oh, it would be so empathetic to understand their issue and fix it for them.
Lindsey: [00:14:00] Yeah.
Carli: Yeah. And what I hear you saying is in fact that.
Carli: Teaches them to not depend on themselves, to not their know their own abilities. Is that what you That's correct.
Lindsey: Yeah. Kind of takes away some of their dignity
Carli: too. I always say it's like clipping a cat's claws. Mm-hmm. It's like you have to, you have to know that you can still fight.
Lindsey: Yes,
Carli: well, and then when you talk about relationship, that's a perfect pivot for what you wanna do mm-hmm.
Carli: At Hope House. Yes. Which, so can you tell me a little bit about that model and what you're hoping to build and what you're breaking ground on?
Lindsey: Yeah, so like I said in the beginning, um, when we, when I was getting so many phone calls from moms looking for housing and really just having no options for them across the state, it just became very evident that.
Lindsey: We needed to build a home and so we, I, I had a donor back in 2018, kind of catch wind of what I was thinking about with a teen mom home. And I had never met her before, but she gave me a hundred thousand dollars and said, go start this home. Wow. And so that was the [00:15:00] real kick in the pants to me of like, okay, I've gotta do this now.
Lindsey: and so formed a board, uh, became an official 5 0 1 C3 with the state and, located a piece of land in West Nashville. And so we are a few weeks away from breaking ground on Tennessee's only home for teen moms and their children. So really exciting that we get to do that it has, it'll have six rooms for six moms.
Lindsey: It has an attached apartment for a house mom, so someone will be there 24 hours a day and then. We've actually kind of modeled, we've, we've looked across the country at a lot of different models of teen mom homes and we've kind of taken a, a lot of advice from people that are doing it really well across the country.
Lindsey: And so we've adapted a program that we feel like will be really successful here for our moms here.
Carli: So what transpired between 2018 and 2025? What kind of. Framework did you have to build to make this possible? 'cause you had the passion.
Mm-hmm.
Carli: You had a little bit of the resources to [00:16:00] probably start on this.
Carli: Yeah. What had to transpire between then and now to make this dream a reality? Yes.
Lindsey: Well, I am naturally a pretty impatient per person, so I thought this house would be, you know, built the next day after we got the, the first donation for it. And it's taken a lot longer because it's been pretty complicated.
Lindsey: but in, in 2018, we started the process in 2019, we applied for. The 5 0 1 C3, we officially got it in March of 2020. Oh gosh. So literally March 3rd, 2020. We got notifications like a week before. Yes. Yeah. Yes. So for 2020, we, we really, we continued to meet as a board and, and think about things, but we weren't really moving forward at that point.
Lindsey:in 2021, when things started to lift, we started looking for property, and decided, okay, we had, we had a little fundraiser. It raised a good amount, and we thought, okay, there's still some momentum behind this. And there's still a need. We were still getting calls from moms all the time. Um, and so we, started looking for property.
Lindsey: But in Davidson [00:17:00] County specifically, zoning is really hard. So having a house with six unrelated parties is, was against the zoning in a lot of places. Okay. I'm
Carli: gonna say what you're not right now mm-hmm. Is, it's isn't under Tennessee arcane law that it's considered a brothel?
Lindsey: Mm-hmm.
Carli: I only know this because in a sorority house at Vanderbilt, yes.
Carli: We couldn't have a certain number of girls. That's why the Vandy. Sorority houses are so small. Yes. Because you couldn't, you couldn't, yeah, you couldn't do that. It is
Lindsey: actually true. Yeah. It's a true thing. So yeah. So the zoning was, was, tricky and, We honestly just hit a lot of roadblocks with property specifically.
Lindsey: At the same time, it kind of allowed us to do some research and figure out what people were doing across the country. We were continuing to raise money and then about a year and a half ago, we found a federal law that allows you to build on a church property without having to get rezoned and so that was really the ticket for us.
Lindsey: To do this. So we found a church property in West Nashville who, Westwood Baptist Church. They're absolutely amazing and they [00:18:00] have, we bought a piece of land from them, so we'll be right next to them. They'll maintain ownership of the land, we'll be a ministry of their church and that kind, that allowed us to get the correct zoning.
Carli: Once I get excited about something, I want it done yesterday. Oh yeah. I would be the worst home builder, like start to finish because I think of things as like, why, why isn't this together? Uhhuh? And so. Understanding that you can have a passionate dream, but reality does set in and there are things that have to happen in order Yeah.
Carli: To legally get to where you wanna go. Mm-hmm. And that's not easy for any entrepreneur, entrepreneurially minded person Yeah. To wrap their head around. Totally. Totally.So
Carli: before we move on, what will set this home apart from. Any other home?
Lindsey: Yeah. Well, for one, we've used trauma-informed design. So it's a way that you design a space to promote healing. So, for example, if you walk into the front door of our home, you can see from one end of the house to the other. And so that lets someone know that no space is [00:19:00] too confining.
Lindsey: feeling trapped is off. Often a trigger for women coming out of domestic violence. So even them being able to walk in the door, I know. That's how I get out. That small little thing can actually just provide so much comfort and promote healing. We have tons of windows and natural light, which is also, really beneficial for someone that has a lot of trauma in their past.
Lindsey: so a big aspect of what I'm really excited about is that trauma-informed design piece that we got to incorporate a lot of that into the home. Another. thing that I love about being able to build the home is every mom will have her own room and bathroom, and we went back and forth on that, but when our moms leave our house, they're probably going to have their own room and bathroom.
Lindsey: And so we wanna prepare them that this is what it's gonna be like when you leave here. It's gonna be you and your child, and. You're gonna have to figure out how to bathe your child in this bathroom and clean up after them and make your bed and all of those things. and so every girl will have her own room and [00:20:00] bathroom.
Lindsey: we've also built a classroom right in the middle of it so that we can serve. Um, moms just from the greater Nashville community. So we'll host classes for any moms, any teen moms in the area that wanna come. We'll have a Hope store where they can earn dollars when they come to our classes, and then go shop in the Hope store for items they may need.
Lindsey: So we've gotten to do a lot of special things like that. Tell me more about The Hope Store. Yeah. And then do you call them Baby Bucks? Is that correct? Yes. We call them Baby Bucks. yes. So the Hope Store is just a place where if you need clothes for your baby, if you need diapers or wipes, or a car seat or a stroller, if you.
Lindsey: You know, if you come to our classes, you'll get a baby buck. If you make a good grade on your test that week, you get a baby buck. If you pass your driver's test, you get a baby buck. and so you can either save them up or you can, okay, I need diapers today. I'm gonna go to. The hopes were today and buy diapers with what I have.
Lindsey: So it's a way to keep them incentivized and [00:21:00] empowered. which that is one of our, our core areas, our core beliefs is how can we empower you? How can we make you feel, know that you can do the hard work? and so baby bucks are so much more than baby bucks. They're a way to help moms really feel empowered.
Carli: I had the privilege of being a mentor at Hope Clinic for a season of my life, and they have something similar where you would earn tickets and you could shop and each time you did a mentoring session, you could get a pack of diapers and then save up and get baby clothes, things like that. Yeah. So I'm asking, wondering, how do they earn the baby bucks?
Carli: Specifically at Hope House? At
Lindsey: Hope House. So, We, in addition to our residential program, we do have a community program. So if a mom calls and she's needing help navigating resources, so let's say she needs food stamps, she needs. She's really working on her driver's license. She wants to get her GED.
Lindsey: She can actually come to Hope House and meet with a social worker. And so let's say she comes in and she meets with a social worker. They meet for an hour, she gets baby buck. She did something hard that day. [00:22:00] Um, she comes with the financial literacy class later in the week, she gets baby buck. Um, so baby bucks are, are very easily earned.
Lindsey: Um, even just small little victories, you can earn a baby buck. Hmm.
Carli: Tell me a little bit about the structure. You said you're modeling Hope House after some things that work across the country. Mm-hmm. So maybe Gold Star type programming that you've researched. What are you specifically implementing? So let's say a teen mom gets a win that they need housing that know that you exist.
Carli: What is the process to get in and how do you structure it for them?
Lindsey: Yeah, it's a great question. So. When a mom reaches out for housing, we do an initial phone assessment and kind of figure out, okay, how urgent is the need? Do we have space? Um, once we decide, okay, yes, you know, she could be a candidate for this, let's bring her in.
Lindsey: We do an in-person interview and an assessment or an intake process. Um. Where we ask all the hard [00:23:00] questions, we get the history, we figure out, you know, how did you get to where you are today? And then we, um, meet with an advisory board, which is a group of women that have worked with teen moms through young lives or have experience working with this population, um, to kind of bounce off, okay, do we think this is the right fit?
Lindsey: Because we really do want it to be the right fit for mom and for us, um, so that we can keep. Our house being successful. So, um, once she gets through those steps, then she goes through a three week trial period, and that really allows, um, us to figure out. If this is the right fit and for her to decide if she wants to be there.
Lindsey: One of the biggest things that we look for is willingness. So we want moms to want to be there. We don't, we, we're not looking for a quick fix. This is a two year program and it's hard work. And it's hard work because we believe that they can do hard things. Um, and so sometimes they just need to be reminded of that.
Lindsey: after the three week trial period, they will, either start their education track, which [00:24:00] will be working on GED and um. Those financial literacy classes, they'll be working on getting a driver's license and then navigating all the benefits that are available to them as teen parents in our state.
Lindsey: So food stamps, wic, um, families first, uh, childcare vouchers, all those things that takes weeks and weeks to get through all of that. So, we have a dedicated social worker that we have actually already hired part-time who is helping us figure out, okay, what does that actually look like? What's the process for that?
Lindsey: and then after they get through. The GED phase, they'll go into their career phase. And so really, sitting down and figuring out what do you wanna do after this and how can we help you get there? There's an, a ton of amazing nonprofits in Nashville that do career development that we've already been, in conversation about being partners with them.
Lindsey: Because we really love that other people are the experts in certain areas and we love what they're doing. And so we're gonna kind of lean on other nonprofits and partner with them to try to, [00:25:00] help our moms get where they wanna go. So, and then after the career phase, They can stay up to two years.
Lindsey: And so then we'll start working on what does it look like when you leave here? how can we help you find stable housing? how much have you saved, you know, where are we on the budgeting? and then what are the things that you wanna do differently as a parent or in relationship with others? So,
Lindsey: That's kind of the overview of what it looks like. We have six core areas that we focus on, and so over that two year period, we're working on those six core areas. So
Carli: you're about to break ground? Mm-hmm. On Hope House? Yeah. When do you estimate you'll be able to bring in your first Mama? I.
Lindsey: Well, I'm learning that it takes a while to build a house.
Lindsey: Sure but we've already done a lot of pre-work, so I've picked out countertops and sinks and faucets and all the things. So we do expect to be open by the end of the year if all goes according to plan.
Carli: I'm curious what type of resources will be available for these moms? Not to just work through the practical and the tangible, right? Because those we've already talked about are super important, but if they're coming in with a lot of [00:26:00] heart heaviness mm-hmm. How will you help them through that?
Lindsey: That's a great question. So. I would say in the past decade, mental health has really, you know, become a more important thing in our world and as it should be. So many of our moms have intense trauma and we can provide all the resources and tools, but if the trauma's not dealt with it will most likely continue to hold them back.
Lindsey: At least that's what I've seen in my experience. so a big. Part of Hope House in the fundraising efforts that we're doing, for the operations is to help pay for counseling we really want our moms to have a therapist that they trust and that they can talk about all the hard things with we, ourselves are not certified therapists, but again, we're gonna refer to the experts on that and, you know, try to get them some counseling so they can work through some of those really hard things.
Hmm.
Carli: I have to ask, tell me about, I'm not gonna call them graduates. Yeah. Because these relations, you never graduate from relationship. Mm-hmm. [00:27:00] Right? These women I know are still in your life and you're still rooting for them.
Carli: Yeah. And hoping to be helpful. But some of the women that you've had the privilege of walking with and doing life with Yes. And that have maybe leaning less heavily on your resources now and they are learning, they can do hard things. Mm-hmm. And do it on your own. On their own. Do you have any stories about some of these women that you would love for people to know about?
Lindsey: Yes. I mean, I have probably three or four moms that called me in one of those desperate situations at, at some point where they called me from a sidewalk at 10:00 PM after they had been kicked out of a house or, you know, they'd been sleeping in their car for a week with their child. Those moments to me are, are vivid in my mind.
Lindsey: They, like we've been talking about, a lot of them have a lot of trauma. And so I've walked through, you know, losing a parent, losing a significant other. I've been to a lot of funerals with them and so those moments are the ones that really bond you together, those crisis moments. [00:28:00] But if it weren't for those relationships, I would've never started Hope House.
Lindsey: I mean, I have two girls specifically that we talk all the time. What would. What would life have looked like if you could have come and lived at Hope House instead of sleeping in your car or instead of having to go to that place you didn't wanna go? A lot of them have been in and outta shelters and we talk about what would it have looked like if you could have come to Hope House.
Lindsey: and so I. A lot of those girls I still have deep relationships with and they still come over and their kids are eight or nine now, and it's really cool just to see, you know, we provided a little bit of help to them as mentors and we provided some resources as they were in high school. And because of that, just that small change in their life, that small amount of support, their life does look different now.
Lindsey: Their kid, their kids are doing well in school and they're living on their own and paying their bills and, and life does look different for them. Um, and so it, it is only God that can do that, and I feel really grateful that we got to be part of that story [00:29:00] for them.
Carli: Hmm. I have to ask on a personal level, this is heavy stuff.
Carli: Mm-hmm. I mean, you're getting called at all hours and you're walking through. Some of the hardest things that people can possibly walk through. Mm-hmm. With these women, how do you, let me ask it this way. How do you stay healthy and grounded yourself? Mm-hmm. Because you can't pour from an empty cup.
Carli: Exactly.
Lindsey: Yeah. I think at the beginning of doing this work with teen moms, IWI ended up being poured from an empty cup. I was just kind of giving it everything. I think now that I have my own children, they are my first party, they're my first ministry my family is, has to come first and so I also have to know, and it's kind of just something that is kind of always in the back of my mind is I can't save.
Lindsey: Anybody, only God can do that work. And so having that in the back of my mind when I get a phone call and it feels urgent, but I need to [00:30:00] be taking care of kids or doing something different, I'm literally laying it. At the feet of Jesus and saying, I can't do all of this. I can't carry all this, but you can.
Lindsey:so it's a lot of that. Um, it's a lot of my own counseling work myself, going to talk through some of these traumatic things, secondary trauma that I've experienced because of this work. And I mean, I have a great community that rallies around me and reminds me that God's called me to this because when it gets hard, it, it, you know, it's easy to kind of just think, well, it's too hard, I should stop.
Lindsey: but I've had so many amazing friends along the way say, no, we, we see the good work that God's calling you to and we wanna help you get there. So, a lot of support is the short answer.
Hmm.
Carli: If people are listening to this and they're feeling that pull that tug
Lindsey: mm-hmm.
Carli: On their inside, like, gosh, I can't be, Lindsay, this is not the work I'm called to, to run this organization and have the vision, but I would love to help in a way that. I can help. [00:31:00] Yeah. How could people get involved to support what you're doing?
Lindsey: Yeah. Well, we do have a, subscriber list so that when we are open, we can reach out to that list of people that might be interested in volunteering. Once our doors are open, we will need lots of people to come hold babies and help with meals and just be extra mentors in the home but in the meantime, um, in addition to.
Lindsey: You know, financially donating. We do have a capital campaign going on right now it's a three and a half million dollar capital campaign. We are halfway there. We've raised 1.5 and, um, we feel really grateful for that, but we still have 1.5 or a little more to go. So, Donating financially is, is a great way to help support us right now.
Lindsey: But, um, with that being said, we are building a home, so we're looking for, you know, donated products, donated sinks or bathtubs or, Work that goes into construction that could be donated. So that would be a way. And then the last area, I would say [00:32:00] if, if you are out there and really feeling stirred to help a teen mom in need, research shows that just one relationship, one positive relationship can change the trajectory of her life.
Lindsey: And so a great way to get involved would be to serve with young lives, which is our sister ministry and mentor a teen mom in our city. Hmm
Carli: mm-hmm. Something Spence and I talk about a lot is nobody asks for this moment in time. Mm-hmm. Nobody wakes up and it finds it convenient. Or what they hoped would be on their bingo card.
Carli: Right. For 2025. Yeah. Let's say. Mm-hmm. To find themselves in this situation. And I'm a firm believer that you can't say that you're pro-life. And not be pro the whole life. Mm-hmm. The whole life cycle. And that includes these teen moms making this decision That includes the life cycle of being a parent.
Carli: Yeah. To parents raising girls. Mm-hmm. That you think this would be the last thing I would love, I would want for my kid. Yeah. But you find yourself in this place or that you find their friend in this place. Yeah. What [00:33:00] would you say to people that are listening that know somebody walking through this?
Carli: What should they know?
Lindsey: I would say just to remember that this is a much more complicated situation than a bad decision, um, or a mistake. Um, I truly believe that God does not make mistakes. And so every mom out there that's making the decision to parent is, is extremely brave and is navigating so many hard decisions. It is not.
Lindsey: A cut and dry thing. It is very challenging to imagine your whole life changing in an instant. Um, and so the, the women that we're working with that are choosing life, they are making a very big sacrifice, um, for that child. And so I would just say when we think about caring for the person that's making that decision, um, if at all [00:34:00] possible.
Lindsey: The judgment that they feel as they walk into the grocery store or as they go into their churches. Um. We all have moments that we wish we could take back but for a lot of these women, what they need most is they need people to rally around them and support them and say, good job. Um, you're doing an amazing job.
Lindsey: as a parent myself, parenting is so incredibly hard. I cannot imagine having to navigate it. As a high school student, um, when I'm supposed to be going to the prom, changing a diaper instead and so I would just encourage people to really try to put yourself in that person's shoes, and think about a time when you may have, you know, ended up somewhere you weren't expecting.
Lindsey: I would just encourage us all to try to look at life through their eyes for even a moment.
.
Carli: I have one more. I have a question. You said that you were able to build Hope House or the property that you are going to build on is on church property. Mm-hmm. Because of Tennessee zoning laws, et cetera, have this [00:35:00] ongoing passion to talk about.
Carli: Where the church should be stepping up.
Hmm.
Carli: And as a Christian who is in a church, a lot of churches do a lot of great things.
Lindsey: Mm-hmm.
Carli: But I think that a lot of what people think the government should be doing for us is actually what our local churches and community organizations. Yeah. And synagogues and.
Carli: Should be doing. Yeah. Because that is a volunteer base that meets weekly, mm-hmm. That has similar values and can find a burden and a heart project and go into the community and solve. And so as you say, you're partnering with the church, you're on their property, and you're gonna be a sub ministry of maybe this church.
Carli: How would you encourage other churches across the state to get involved to solve these really practical problems? Yeah, I
Lindsey: mean, I, I would say I know all of us. Have a million things going on and a lot of us are, have crisis of [00:36:00] our own. but when you look at the life of Christ, you look at him going. To the orphans and the widows.
Lindsey: You look at him going to the women that need him and Christ tells us to be like him. And Christ was often in really uncomfortable situations.
Lindsey: And one thing I really wish. And really hope that churches will start doing is getting out of their comfort zone and being around people that may not be like them, that may come from a different part of town. because at the end of the day, we're all human inside. and so, yeah, I, I do wish that. It was talked more about in churches and encouraged to volunteer even if it's inconvenient, even if it doesn't feel good.
Lindsey: Because oftentimes what'll happen is, you know, God uses all of those things and it could end up changing your life too. And honestly, that's how I got into this is because I was volunteering and it changed my life and so I do think. That God is calling us to do more than just stay
Carli: in our four walls.
Carli: For sure. I mean, if you look at it, churches were [00:37:00] instrumental in the civil rights movement. Mm-hmm. Churches were the catalyst for healthcare. A lot of our biggest hospital systems were started by church or faith based organizations. Um. And you just see thing after thing after thing that was started by faith-based community.
Carli: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Organizations, and I think for whatever reason, in 2025, not all
mm-hmm.
Carli: Community organizations, but a lot of them have lost their teeth. Yes. And so I love that you are using that model to serve these women.
Yeah.
Carli: So one thing we like to do with our guests is play a little game fun as we get to the end.
Carli: Okay. And so we're gonna play a fill in the blank game. Okay. I'm gonna read you a sentence and you are gonna repeat that sentence back to me and fill in the blank. Okay. Great. So here we go. First one, teen moms need blank To succeed. Teen moms need stability to succeed.
Hmm.
Carli: Hope House exists to blank. [00:38:00]
Lindsey: Hope House exists to empower teen moms on their journey towards motherhood.
Carli: The best way to support teen moms in Tennessee is blank.
Lindsey: The best way to support teen moms in Tennessee is to advocate for more sustainable housing.
Carli: Lindsay, this has been. Really a special conversation. Everyone knows that there are teen moms out there.
Mm-hmm.
Carli: But to actually see you doing something to serve that community, this almost.
Carli: Uh, taboo community. Mm-hmm. People know about them, but very few people move to action to support them. Mm-hmm. And they're just precious teenagers walking a really hard road. I love how practical you are, how relational you are, but I also really appreciate your vision. And the steps you have taken to make sure that [00:39:00] just because you want something done, you're gonna take the time to make sure it's done with excellence.
Carli: Exactly. And so thank you for what you're doing and I really hope that we can come and see Yes. The Hope House when it's done.
Lindsey: Oh, we'll invite you for sure.
Carli: Thank you so much. Thank you.
