With only pocket change and Greyhound bus tickets, Lehua Lewis traveled across the country with her family to Birmingham in 2012 for a fresh start.

Originally from Seattle, Lewis moved to Alabama after her oldest daughter passed away. Following a divorce from an abusive husband, the single mom stayed temporarily at Jessie’s Place, a center for women and children. She and her four children then relocated to public housing before struggles with substance use resulted in the state taking her kids away.

It took a year, but with the help of local ministries, Lewis found freedom from addiction. Then, she started volunteering at Birmingham-based Serving You Ministries (SYM).

SYM joined with another nonprofit, ELI, and together they assisted Lewis in getting her children back. It was a challenging process, involving extensive paperwork, sworn statements and letters of support, plus daily drug tests that confirmed Lewis was staying clean.

“The compassion and love that both organizations have is very genuine,” Lewis said. “ELI and Serving You Ministries quickly became family to me and helped me see a better me.”

Located on the bus line in the heart of Birmingham, SYM and ELI share the same location, and mission: to help families reach their full potential.

Since 2018, SYM and ELI have partnered to bring families sustainable solutions through a food market, safe and affordable housing, career development and training, childcare services, educational programs and more.

“While ELI focuses on long-term programs, Serving You Ministries is a crisis relief center that focuses on food, utilities and any other crises families may have,” said John Gibson, SYM executive director. “Most of the families that join ELI’s program come through our doors first.”

Since its start in 2009 out of NorthPark Baptist Church in Trussville, SYM has grown to include partnerships with around 40 churches. It now serves about 150 families each week with the help of 50-60 volunteers. In addition to its varied services for families, each person that comes to SYM is prayed over, Gibson said.

“Our program allows us to let families shop in our market, assist them with utility bills, transportation and more,” Gibson said. “We want to bring dignity to the families we serve.”

Lehua Lewis at the offices of Serving You Ministries, where she is now a site director. (Magdalena Phillips / Alabama News Center)

With the goal of providing families reliable and affordable transportation, SYM recently launched a new program, Serving You Motors. According to Gibson, many families they serve don’t have a car and have to use Uber to get to work, which can cost thousands of dollars every month. Through Serving You Motors, SYM takes donated cars, gets them serviced by a mechanic and then sells them to families for the cost of the repairs.

Over the years, the Alabama Business Charitable Trust Fund (ABC Trust), created by Alabama Power, has supported SYM’s efforts. The trust directs resources to nonprofits and community action agencies so they can support low-income families in crisis with energy assistance and other needs.

Most recently, SYM received $10,000 from the ABC Trust as the winner of the annual Dorothy Crosby Legacy Award. Established in 2022, the award provides up to $10,000 to a nonprofit organization or community action agency doing exemplary work serving clients in areas of elderly care, energy assistance, education, or health and human services. The grant was established in honor of the late Dorothy Crosby, longtime chairman of the ABC Trust board of directors.

Shoppers at the Serving You Ministries market. (contributed)

ELI Thrive got its start in 2010, helping families thrive by providing housing and employment support, budget counseling, help with health and nutrition, and education services. With six certified social workers, ELI offers holistic coaching to families over the course of one to three years. There are about 150 families in the program.

“Our goal is to help families move from crisis to thriving,” said Pam Bates, ELI executive director. “We do that through partnering with organizations like Serving You Ministries, as well as through monthly budget meetings and family coaching.”

Gibson said ELI’s life coaches also work to guide families toward better employment opportunities and career paths, and programs that can assist them in creating their own small businesses.

ELI owns nine houses and is building several more homes tied to the ongoing mission of helping families find safe and secure housing. Families enrolled in the housing program attend monthly meetings to establish a monthly budget, set goals and improve their credit scores while receiving customized counseling from the life coaches.

With so much need in the Birmingham area, SYM and ELI plan, with partners, to expand their wraparound services to families in the west Birmingham neighborhood of Ensley, with a focus on providing housing, expanding neighborhood greenspace, improving the neighborhood’s commercial properties and creating a child development center. The groups are already providing life coaching to Ensley families.

As for Lewis, in 2017 she graduated from a job training program offered by another local nonprofit, Hope Inspired Ministries, which operates centers in Birmingham, Montgomery and Lowndes County. The following year, SYM hired Lewis, where she now serves as site director – passionately helping families that are in crisis – as hers once was – find rehabilitation and purpose.

In 2020, Lewis and her family moved into an ELI home in east Birmingham. Since then, she and her new husband have diligently saved to buy the house from ELI. This month, they closed on the property.

“It took a lot of help, time and effort to be where I am today, but God gets all the glory,” Lewis said.

Learn more about Serving You Ministries at servingyou.org. Learn more about ELI at elithrive.com.

Lewis is now a homeowner. (Magdalena Phillips / Alabama News Center)