Today we’d like to introduce you to Paula Cochran
Hi Paula, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My name is Paula Cochran. I’m blessed to run a 501c3 called Leah’s House. I am the wife of a wonderful husband, a mother, and grandmother. I am truly blessed with a beautiful family, and I thank God for that.
I grew up in a family that was very dysfunctional. There was fighting, yelling and screaming, alcohol and abuse. It was a mess. I started to continue this disfunction in my own life when I became an adult. At some point I became exhausted with the way I was living my life and everything about it. It was clear that a change was needed.
I started going to church and soon started getting serious about following Jesus. I decided that I wanted Jesus to be both Savior and Lord of my life, and things began to change. I started loving my life and the people in it. I started to love others. (I also met and married my husband at the church that I was attending.) My new found passion for God made me want to volunteer and serve others so they could see they were loved and had a purpose in this world too.
I started out volunteering at church working with the kids in children’s church. Later I began volunteering in Memphis doing homework classes and sidewalk Sunday School in one of the Government Housing Projects. I loved spending time with the kids and letting them know they were important and loved.
In 2016 I had the opportunity to volunteer at a women’s rehabilitation facility. I found where I fit! It was an awesome experience! I taught classes, helped with transportation by taking the ladies to court or to doctors appointments. It felt like God was starting to drop it into my heart to start a women’s home. I began to dream of opening a recovery program that wasn’t an institution, but a home; a home with peace and love to help deal with the drama and trauma in the women’s lives. I started to write down ideas on how things could be done if I had a place of my own.
In 2018 I started to volunteer at a different place for a couple of years. This program was a little more home-like. Once COVID hit it stopped me from being able to return for a while. During that time, I was asked to teach a class at Leah’s House.
I began to get more involved in Leah’s House in 2020. The program was run much more like the women’s home that I had been dreaming and praying about starting. After some time the founder of Leah’s House expressed that she wanted to do jail ministry, so she asked if me and my husband and I would like to take over the ministry. My husband and I took over Leah’s House in November of 2021. It was a miracle!
My husband and I had been praying about the idea of opening a women’s home since 2016 and we didn’t have any idea of how it would ever happen. Suddenly, a home was being turned over to us. Since that time we’ve been going strong. My husband provides counsel, gives me emotional and spiritual support as I do the daily work of the director of Leah’s House.
The ladies that come through Leah’s House have been such a blessing. I love showing them love and giving them the tools they need for a better life, and to help them through life’s hurts and trauma. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing women get back on their feet and have a successful life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been plenty of struggles along the way. Overcoming the hurts of the past is never easy. Almost every woman to enter the home has suffered a lot of trauma. Some of it is physical, others it may be mental and some it’s sexual abuse. Almost every one of the women lack any type of positive male role model in their lives. They may not know their father, or else they have suffered abuse at the hands of their fathers.
Sometimes it’s hard to accept love when you’ve experienced so much rejection and abuse. So, it takes a lot of patience to help the ladies understand that they have value and worth. It takes time to peel back the layers and get to the root of their issues and still help them continue to develop skills to become employable and live independently in a single year.
It can be a challenge sometimes in maintaining the 501c3 itself. We don’t accept any forms of insurance and we don’t receive any grant money or have any large donors. We operate on the gifts of individual donors. Everyone that works with Leah’s House is a volunteer. No one receives any money for the work they do. Some months we run very lean on help and finances, but God has always provided resources for us to continue to pay the rent and provide what the ladies need.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Leah’s House is a restoration and recovery home. Many of the women that come in are overcoming addiction, but all the women are suffering from some form of trauma or abuse of some kind. It’s a residential program that runs for 12 months from the time of entry.
At Leah’s House we like to give the ladies time to rest when they come in. Just a couple of weeks to do nothing but rest since it can take weeks, or even months for a person’s mind to begin to clear up after years of trauma and/or addiction.
After resting, classes would start. The classes cover all the things needed to help in life. They cover three primary areas: Spirit, Soul and Body. It is a wholistic approach to healing. Classes include learning how to cook, art classes, how to get and keep a job, how to handle finances, individual and group counseling sessions to help deal with past trauma, setting healthy boundaries, Bible classes and more. The idea is to teach the ladies things they may not have ever been taught and do it in a home-like atmosphere.
The women can begin working after about six months. This gives them chance to focus on themselves and the classes for the first six months, and then they begin to focus on finances, paying off any outstanding fines and begin to plan an exit strategy in the last half of the program.
The thing that makes us most unique is we are run 100% by volunteers and there is a minimal cost to the women once they start working. One thing we have learned over the years is that “one size does not fit all”. There are a number of programs out there, some big, some small. We give a lot of referrals to other programs, and we receive them from other programs, jails, prisons and by word of mouth. It’s important that everyone finds a place where they feel like they fit and they want to be there and be serious about recovering.
We house a maximum five women at a time. This allows us to keep a home-like atmosphere and it allows us to give each of the ladies the attention they need. We have a Residential Assistant named Beth that lives in the home with women that are completing the program. Beth has been such a big help in the day-to-day operation of the home.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
We’re too familiar with risk. We have to pray every year when it’s time to renew our rental agreement for the home and confirm that the Lord wants us to keep going and that he’s going to continue to provide for all our needs. There are so few places for women in Desoto County to find the help that we provide. There are some, but most of the time there are not enough beds for the demand. Believe me, I’m not a “risk taker” but the benefit of taking the risk far outweighs the risk of not taking it and closing the house down. God has always proven himself faithful and I’m grateful to do the work that I do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.leahshouse.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeahsHouse13
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/LeahsHouseMS
