TenderLove Community Center in Albuquerque is celebrating 10 years of helping women who struggle with homelessness and addiction.
“There’s a lot of broken women that I’ve met since being here and I—and I know I will continue to see that,” Celeste Pettine, who lived at the TenderLove Recovery House for nearly eight months, told KOB 4 recently. “But, this place is the only reason that I was able to get through the toughest times.”
Pettine is a hair stylist, a mom and an alcoholic who needed, like many women who come to TenderLove Community Center, a place to recover and heal.
Debbie Johnson founded the center nearly 10 years ago. The concept began as a training center to teach women tools and offer resources to get off the street.
“My goal is to make sure that we don’t see anybody under the bridge begging for money,” Johnson told KOB 4.
In 2020, a house was purchased to add a more stable layer of support for homeless and addicted women.
Johnson, once homeless herself, noted that her group is closing this month on a second home designated for homeless women with children. TenderLove Community Center said it has a 96% success rate of getting women off the street.
“This is a home with strong women that are there to take care of one another,” Pettine said.
There are future plans to expand and help men as well.
"We create a community of connections with individual support so that vulnerable individuals and their families can create positive changes in their lives and communities," the TenderLove Community website said. "We are a safe, supportive environment where individuals recovering from domestic violence, incarceration, trafficking, marginalization, can learn life and job skills and make connections to wrap-around services. We engage individuals in programs that are matched to their interests and their talents. We promote individual responsibility and community awareness."
