For the families we serve at Family Reconciliation, the Guest House is so much more than a place to stay; it’s a lifeline to someone they love.
Can you imagine what it must feel like to have a loved one in prison, but you can’t afford to visit them?
Nashville is home to three major area prisons. As hotel rates continue to skyrocket, and the city becomes increasingly unaffordable, more and more families are being priced out of visiting their incarcerated loved ones.
If Family Reconciliation’s Guest House did not exist, where would these families go?
For the families we serve at Family Reconciliation, the Guest House is so much more than a place to stay; it’s a lifeline to someone they love. It’s the difference between spending Christmas apart, or together. It’s ensuring that their loved one has what they need to stay healthy and well. It’s hope that there is life beyond incarceration.
It’s been 18 months since Family Reconciliation decided to focus exclusively on the Guest House as a means to serve inmates and their families. Since that time, we have booked 109 individuals totaling 889 room nights.
If the average hotel stay in Nashville is $200 per night, that’s $177,800 that inmates’ families didn’t have to spend. And each day, those numbers continue to grow.
Imagine what a gift that is to the families we serve.
Like Mark, who drove 4½ hours each way to visit his wife Patty here in Nashville. Often, Mark would bring his grown son and 9-year-old daughter with him to see Patty. Instead of squeezing into a lonely hotel room far from the prison, they stayed at the Guest House, making friends with other inmates’ families, sharing meals and supporting each other.
Patty lived for those visits.
When Patty was released this summer, she had one request before going home: she wanted to stay one night at Family Reconciliation, so she could finally see the place that had made those family visits possible.
When you give to Family Reconciliation, you are providing a safe, supportive, free place for inmates’ families to stay. You are keeping families together in spite of the hardships of incarceration. You are reconciling husband to wife, parent to child, sister to brother, offender to community.
Just read what some of our guests have to say:
“My wife and I visit our loved one regularly and love the ‘home away from home’ atmosphere at the Family Reconciliation Center. We can relax in a safe place among people who understand what our loved one is going through each day to survive in prison and what we go through. We sometimes believe the saying, “family serve time with their loved one” is true, but we have friends at the house who provide emotional support. We would have never met these friends without FRC.”
“I am on a fixed income and without The Guest House I would not have been able to visit my son as often. He was able to make parole and the family visits played a huge role in getting my boy out for parole.”
As we move into the new year and the number of individuals we serve continues to grow, we recognize how critical it is for Family Reconciliation’s Guest House to be here for inmates’ families in the months and years to come.
In order to continue providing this critical, life-changing service for inmates and their loved ones, Family Reconciliation is now seeking to buy the Guest House, which we currently rent from St. Luke’s Community House.
We have already received pledges totaling $35,000 toward our goal of $80,000 for a down payment. Purchasing the house will give Family Reconciliation a permanent home and stabilize our monthly expenses.
As we enter the holiday season, will you consider giving $100, $250, $500, or more to Family Reconciliation?
Your support matters:
$100 provides a 2-night stay for 2 inmates’ families
$250 provides a 2-night stay for 5 inmates’ families
$500 provides a 2-night stay for 10 inmates’ families
Anything we raise above and beyond our annual budget will go directly toward the purchase of the Guest House.
Thank you for making Family Reconciliation possible. Your support gives inmates’ families a place to stay with dignity, and gives inmates hope for the future.
Your support keeps families together.
Family Reconciliations is a nonprofit hospitality house located in Nashville, TN. We provide free overnight rooms to individuals and families visiting their incarcerated loved ones.