Giving Tuesday: Help Us Create a Transitional Home for Women with Children in Minden, Louisiana

It’s Giving Tuesday! This is one day of the year where non-profits pull out all the stops to raise funding for worthwhile projects.

Coming off of two of the biggest spend days of the year (Black Friday and Cyber Monday) Giving Tuesday tends to be the calm after the storm. According to the official website, Giving Tuesday is “global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.”

This Giving Tuesday, we would be honored if you could support Phillip’s Cottage. In case you missed it, my new non-profit is a tax-deductible 501c3 organization named after my late father. Our mission is to provide transitional housing for two to three women with children once they graduate from Louisiana Teen Challenge. My dad loved people well and deeply, and I can’t think of a better way to honor his legacy. 

Meet my sweet dad, Phillip Carroll. He spent 39 years in the public school system as a teacher and guidance counselor. Then, he spent practically his whole life in the ministry, serving as a youth pastor at the time of his death in June 2023.  He would love nothing more than to see his life’s work carried on after his death. 

We are just getting started on this home and have a LONG way to go.  The goal is to have our first residents move in late summer 2025.  But, being perfectly honest, we do not have the funding as of now and progress is slow. But here are a few things we’ve been able to accomplish to date:

*Complete yard cleanup (it was full of trash, debris and overgrowth)

*Complete house cleanout (it was full of the former resident’s things)

*Tree removal and trimming (trees were compromising the integrity of the home and have since been removed)

*Kudzu cleaning courtesy of a nice herd of goats, lol

*Roof repairs

*Bolin Construction has begun work on the exterior and we ran into a LIVE termite colony which we will actually be addressing today, 🙁

Please meet Kenny and Ashley Miller. Kenny and Ashley were raised in a Christian home, went to college, had a family and successful careers, but became trapped in the throws of addiction. They lost their family and their lucrative careers.  But by the grace of God, they found Teen Challenge, and after a long rehabilitation process, they are healthy, healed, and whole.  Ashley now serves on our board and is our secretary. Kenny runs a similar home for men in the Shreveport area.  When you give to Phillip’s Cottage, this is the kind of life change you are impacting. (The first two pictures show their season of addiction; the last picture was about a month ago…. healed and whole.)

As we strive to meet our late summer move-in goal, we are in urgent need of raising approximately $200,000.  While this may seem like a daunting task, I am confident that the Lord’s hand is guiding this project.  Your tax-deductible donation to Phillip’s Cottage, regardless of its size, would be greatly appreciated. Every gift, no matter how small,  has the power to significantly impact the lives of young women and their children, altering their destinies forever.  

If you are connected with any businesses or corporations looking to make a year-end gift, please pass along our information.

Stay tuned for much more from this project. We will announce two major fundraising events very soon that are going to blow your away. God is in the story, and we would be honored to have you along for the journey.