J127 Ministry, an organization that assists young women transitioning out of foster care, had a ribbon cutting recently from the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce.
J127 opened in May 2020 at 717 N. 49th Ave. in Durant and the name comes from a Bible verse that talks about taking care of orphans and widows.
Adrean Stinnett is the founder and director of J127.
“We’ve been here four years but we thought, hey, now’s a good time to do a ribbon cutting,” Stinnett said.
The ministry works with females ages 17-25 who have aged out of the foster care system, group homes or find themselves homeless, according to Stinnett.
“We have been around for four-and-a-half years and we have served 74 young ladies that have come through our program and four babies,” Stinnett said. “We’re really excited with everything that’s going on here and right now, it’s telling them we have a phenomenal group of young ladies that are in our program.
“We have two that are in high school, some that are working on their GED and we also have three that are in college which is a huge thing. So, more than 50 percent of our girls are actually pursuing their education and so we’re really excited that our community provides a home like this because we are 100 percent funded by our community. We’re 100 percent debt-free because of our community but we truly could not do it without each and everybody here in Durant.”
The ministry can house 10 females at a time and each of them are paired up with three mentors, so Stinnett said the ministry is always looking for someone to volunteer as a mentor.
“We have a new girl that’s actually moving in today that will need mentors,” Stinnett said. “We also just need people that come in and spend time with the girls on a regular basis, and we do life skills. So, we’re always looking for people that will come in and teach work skills, job skills, relationships, how to fix a flat tire.
“All different things. We need people in our community and also just driving the girls around, and we love to have families come and volunteer together as units. It truly takes a community to help, to love on these girls and all we’re doing is one thing we say: These young ladies are phenomenal for letting us get into their business. So, that’s what we do. We get into their business. We walk life out with them and they don’t have to be here. They choose to be here and that says a lot about who they are and where they’re going, so we firmly believe that the girls when they leave, they’re going to be some of our leaders and whether it’s in their home or whether it’s out in their community, and so we’re raising up future leaders.”
Mike Cook, chamber board member, spoke on behalf of the chamber.
“So not only do they have graduates here, they’ve got a graduate program that builds these girls up and gets them ready to go out (in the community),” Cook said. “They also have girls that come through that just pick up some life skills and they need the community support for the jobs and the education … Southeastern is really good. The Choctaw Nation’s really good about helping get these girls some classes, some education and they have to be a working part of the family here to stay.”
“Yep, they’re definitely not just laying around and if they are, we’re booting them out … of the bed, not out of the house,” Stinnett replied.
Stinnett said J127 loves sharing its building with other nonprofi t agencies in the community and it is also available for rent.
“We also partnered with Under his Wings Widow’s Ministry and they serve widows out of there too so they share that building with us,” Stinnett said.
J127 Ministry depends upon community support and to make a donation, visit j127ministry. com/donate.
