Ellington

Myra Ramsey, 68, started the Daylight Ministries Center for Women 13 years ago. Daylight Ministries is a program to provide temporary housing for women who are former prison inmates, homeless or recovering substance abusers.

"One of our goals is to increase awareness of the devastating effects of women being behind bars or suffering from alcoholism or drug dependency," Ramsey said. "A group of friends and I developed this concept and opened Daylight Ministries in 2000. The program is a spinoff of the prison ministry at Amazing Institution Church of God in Christ, my church. We would go into prisons to visit and minister to the women prisoners."

Ramsey began her prison ministry work 23 years ago by visiting a local youth detention center with her church group. From there, the group started visiting prisons for adults. Ramsey told the Jackson Free Press that one of her primary motivations for starting Daylight Ministries was seeing the concern of arrested women who didn't know where their children were or who would take care of them.

"Hearing (from those women) moved me," Ramsey said. "They needed an in-between place to go to get back on their feet rather than going back to the same environment they came from, so they could go back to their children. I talked about it with my pastor, Marcus L. Butler, and he helped me come up the idea to open Daylight Ministries."

"Daylight Ministries is the first of its kind in Mississippi," Ramsey said. "It's the only program specifically for women ex-offenders. We help (women) build self-esteem. We provide the opportunity for change through offering life skills counseling and providing shelter, food, clothes, education and job help. We help women who come here become independent, productive law-abiding citizens. Our overall success rate since we've been in business is 96 percent. We get testimonies every year, especially on holidays, from women whose lives have changed."

Ramsey moved to Jackson from Meridian 42 years ago. She attended Meridian High School and from there went to Jackson State University, where she majored in accounting. Ramsey worked for the Jackson Police Department as an accounting clerk and deputy court clerk for six years before starting Daylight Ministries.

Ramsey and her husband, Richard Ramsey, have two daughters, Dani Whitfield and Sheila Ramsey.

For information on the Daylight Ministries Center for Women (PO Box 325, Tougaloo, Miss.), call 601-398-4696.