Gina Tomes, co-founder of Bethlehem House in Omaha, Neb., launched a new endeavor to help community moms in need, and she envisions other communities across the state and around the country replicating the initiative, serving many more struggling women and making positive impacts on generations.
“It's called Guiding Grace Motherhood Support Network,” Tomes recently told Pregnancy Help News.
Tomes co-founded Bethlehem House in 2005 and had been its Program Director. Bethlehem House has been highlighted for its groundbreaking work in various areas, in particular serving women wrestling with addiction, and was among five homes chosen to be part of a first-of-its-kind study on maternity housing. Tomes was also able to raise the home’s profile along with awareness of maternity housing when she was invited to speak at the 2023 March for Life Rally. After leading the way in expanded services with maternity housing Tomes felt called to develop offerings for women in need further.
“My heart and soul have been in the maternity home space for a long time, and I was a part of the Bethlehem House for a very, very long time,” Tomes said. “I didn't experience burnout. My heart was on fire. I just truly saw the miraculous impact that took place when providing women experiencing unexpected pregnancies services that they needed and desired.”
She launched Guiding Grace Motherhood Support Network in June 2024.
“We are actively serving 87 families, and since last month [December 2024, we added 82 more,” Tomes said.
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
Seeing the need
She sees this new program as helping women who still need support after being served by pregnancy centers and residing at a maternity home beyond the traditional one-to-three-year stay. Tomes personally knew a client who had a pre-teen child for whom the woman had chosen life. This woman experienced a significant set-back in her life and eventually lost her life. Her death tremendously impacted Tomes.
“It was one bump that she hit, and it could have been resolved,” Tomes said. “I just feel like a continuation of services needs to follow these moms that courageously choose life.”
“There is a significant breakdown in the family,” she said, “and so when women bridge into the community after receiving such powerful services, and a maternity home is an example, the women have a desire to continue on [with services] because those family supports are not in place in some cases, and in a lot of cases they never are and they never will be.”
More than 185 Nebraska families have reached out to Guiding Grace, highlighting the need for help and support.
“We're on to something,” Tomes said. “It’s a statement saying we need to go down the road with these families. We need to walk alongside our moms as long as they desire, and the majority of them desire a lifetime of that fellowship.”
“They might need intense help, programming and case management and therapy and addiction and recovery treatment at that initial phase, but then five years down the road it looks different,” she added. “So, we need to keep walking with them. I believe that is truly a pro-life solution.”
Tweet This: We need to walk alongside our moms as long as they desire, and a majority of them desire a lifetime of fellowship.
Community-based and supported
This new pregnancy help organization (PHO) Tomes founded requires support and volunteerism from many community partners, something she continues to assemble. From healthcare providers to professional counselors, Guiding Grace seeks to lift up and empower pregnant women, single mothers, and families through a variety of programs and classes. Fellowship with others is a critical component to the project as well, including sharing meals and introducing and/or strengthening a faith walk.
“I feel it could involve more from the community,” Tomes said. “It's a way for churches, it's a way for schools, it's a way for corporations and employers, it's a way for families. They want to do something; they just don't know what to do and they don't know how to do it.”
She has found support in Omaha for the concept, including alumni from Bethlehem House and its after-care program.
For example, a woman who benefitted from the maternity home in her own life brought in bags of groceries one afternoon and made a meal for people attending a class that particular night. Tomes recounted how the young woman simply said, “I was helped when I needed it, I recently received a raise, and I want to give back.”
Nebraska and several other states now have laws that allow the states to grant money to PHOs, and she encouraged pregnancy help organizations, including pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes, as well as those who might want to create a Guiding Grace-type program, to tap into such funds.
“That state funding was very critical because what we're doing is we're reinvesting it right back into the families that we're serving,” Tomes said. “We're making sure they [women and families] have all the supplies they need.”
That includes rent assistance and many other types of support, depending on a woman or family’s particular need.
“It's not a Band-Aid where it's an enabling tool, it's a preventative type of funding that we can be thoughtful and impactful for and use,” Tomes said.
“I plan on approaching national types of funders and saying, ‘Let's prove that this model is effective,” she said. “Let's do some research. Let's prove that Guiding Grace Motherhood Support Network is bringing women out of poverty.’ So, we're keeping very extensive data.”
Beyond Omaha, generational impacts
Tomes foresees taking the program across Nebraska and beyond.
“I want this to be replicated,” she said, ‘a continuation of services to expecting mothers and parenting mothers, taking the level of services that happen at that initial phase when a mom chooses life and continue them on through life because that mother's goals and barriers and desires change, just like in our own family.”
In addition to programs and classes for pregnant women and single moms, Guiding Grace also provides services for fathers and children, which includes a reading club and homework tutoring, thereby positively impacting generations.
“I think it's important that we take this step in the movement and do more and for a longer period of time,” Tomes said. “Guiding Grace Motherhood Support Network is that statement. There's no agenda behind it. There's no ego. There's nothing like that.”
“It is literally a community-based program,” she said. “We're all in this together and I'm excited for the next season.”
