Our Program

MSP is passionate about re-educating the community about addiction, believing that it is ultimately a heart problem which can only be mended through a relationship with God. We do not believe in a “drug of choice”; we believe that all addictions are rooted in a lack of peace and a desire to change the way one feels. That is why MSP is not just a sobriety program or a rehabilitation center: it is a life-recovery program that relies on both the 12 Steps and Jesus to entirely transform lives. Our mission involves three steps: rescue, restore, and return.

First, we rescue women from dangerous situations and harmful addictions. When women enter our program, they spend approximately their first 40 days focused on kick-starting their sobriety and recovery journeys. This involves attending recovery meetings, working the 12 Steps, and receiving mentoring.

Second, we help our residents to regain a sense of dignity and independence. After the initial 40-day period, most women get jobs and start becoming more self-sufficient. They start paying their own program fees, saving up money, and working on valuable life-skills.

Third, we hope to see our residents graduate from our program and begin living healthy, independent lives outside of MSP. We hope to see women reunited with their families and children, legal issues cleared, and lives freed from substance abuse and addiction.

Rescue

The women we serve are frequently the ones that society has thrown away. Our target population is the hurting, abandoned, abused, and addicted women of Central Alabama. They often come in feeling hopeless, lost, hurting, and alone.

In order to help these women, we must first bring them into a safe place where they are able to focus on their recovery journey, not just their daily survival.

MSP provides a home where they can be accepted, loved, nurtured, and guided throughout that journey. We provide shelter, food, transportation, and assistance with other basic care to help them get back on their feet.

Restore

Many of the women who come to MSP feel insecure or even incapable of living healthy, balanced adult lives. Our goal is to help them gain confidence and acquire the skills that they need to begin living the lives that they long for. We provide assistance in getting medical and legal issues under control, and we hold our residents accountable for paying any owed fines, acquiring any missing personal documentation, and saving for future independent living. They also learn responsibility by participating in the daily upkeep of the homes that they live in, including cleaning, cooking, and lawncare. Plus, we provide opportunities for parenting classes, GED courses, career prep, money management classes, and a variety of personal growth and development classes.

Our residents regularly attend recovery meetings where they receive support from a community of people who have relatable struggles to their own. Every woman is connected to a personal sponsor, who serves as a mentor during their recovery journey. Meanwhile, women regularly attend church services and are encouraged to explore their faith. We believe that the biggest transformation happens when an individual chooses to pursue a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The support that our residents receive and the independence that they gain are intended to equip each woman with the confidence, life skills, and freedom to embrace a new beginning in life.

Return

Our goal is for each woman to become a graduate from My Sister's Place, ready and equipped to start a healthy life without the burdens and limitations of past hurts, habits, and hangups. By working through the recovery process, we hope that they can learn to let go of the old ways of thinking that once kept them trapped in the past and fearful of the future. Though we hope that MSP can feel like home for a time, it is not intended to be their home forever. We believe that if they gain a sense of security as they walk through the process of restoration, and if they choose to apply the discipleship principles they have learned, our residents will be ready to face life head-on, including situations that once baffled and overwhelmed them. More importantly, they will be ready to return to their communities and families so that they can become the moms, daughters, sisters, and wives that they need to be.

Key Distinctives of Our Ministry Model

1.
Provides both Christ-centered approach to recovery and 12 Step based recovery methods
2.
All leaders have walked through their own brokenness by relying on Jesus and the 12 Steps

3.
Strengthens independence and transitions women into work, home, family, and community life
4.
Focus on building relationships and community participation within a healthy church body

Program Impact

2020

77 Total Women Served
15 Program Graduates
156 Child Visits
200+ In-Person Meetings
200+ Zoom Meetings
52 Church Services
115 Bible Study Classes
360 Recovery Classes

2021

104 Total Women Served
28 Program Graduates
205 Child Visits
104 In-Person Meetings
728 Zoom Meetings
65 Church Services
156 Bible Study Classes
720 Recovery Classes

MSP Staff

All of our staff members are graduates of My Sister's Place and have each walked through their own faith and recovery journeys.

Cindy Hildebrand

Founder, Director

Cindy started abusing drugs and alcohol when she was a teenager, exhausting herself for many years into adulthood as she looked for peace in all the wrong places. She tried to cure her own hurts through substance abuse, geographic changes, and destructive relationships with men. After a few DUI’s, jail, rehabs, drug court, and work release, Cindy got connected with a church that had a thriving recovery ministry. She has now been sober since January 20, 2004, and she went on to lead that same recovery program, expand its ministry to local jails, and eventually establish My Sister’s Place. Cindy has found her peace in Christ, and she is passionate about sharing the hope of recovery with other women.

Crissie Ashworth

Assistant Ministry Leader

Crissie arrived at MSP in 2017. From a traumatic childhood to drug use in both her teenage and adult life, brokenness felt like it was her normal. At MSP, she learned to live life a better way, with Christ as her foundation. She is now experiencing restoration and healing on many levels. Every day, Crissie loves watching God bring beauty from brokenness in her life and in the lives of the women she now has the honor to serve.

Brooke Kelley

Restore54 Pickups Coordinator

Brooke first came to MSP in 2011. Before coming to My Sister's Place, she was living in active addiction for about 15 years. She had accepted the fact that her life was never going to change and that she was never going to amount to anything. While in jail, she attended a meeting led by Cindy, and she found hope in the stories of recovery she heard. She began to believe that if recovery could work for Cindy, then it could work for her. And it did. Brooke has now been living in freedom since July of 2018.

Misty Bruner

General Staff

Misty arrived at MSP in 2019, after spending a very long stretch in jail. Before coming to MSP, she was lost in a world of drug addiction, alcohol abuse, toxic relationships, and complete chaos. She was in and out of jails, homeless, and without any hope that her life would ever be any different. She completed her court order to be at MSP and then chose to stay, desiring to give back to the ministry that had taught her so much. Misty finds that working with women who are broken, hurt, lost, and hopeless- like she once was- is a more rewarding job than she could have ever imagined.

Jessica Vilchis

General Staff

Jessica came to MSP in 2020, after struggling with addiction for about 18 years. She had revolved her whole life around prostitution and getting her “next fix,” which caused her to ultimately feel lost, angry, broken, and completely worthless. But God made a way for her to come to My Sister’s Place- a place where she learned to have a relationship with Jesus, live life on life’s terms, and to replace the lies she once believed about herself with the truth of God’s love for her.Working for MSP gives Jessica the opportunity to give back to the ministry that helped save her life, and she now loves sharing experience, strength, and hope with women like herself.

Executive Leadership

Our board members serve as accountability for Cindy and help advise her in major decisions concerning MSP.

Cindy Hildrebrand

MSP Executive Director

Mark Davis

Pastor

Douglas Walker

Pastor, Counselor

Lara Alvis

Shelby County Judge

Testimonials

A Brief History of My Sister's Place

1993-2003 Cindy manages an assisted-living facility and falls into addiction.
2004 Cindy gets clean and sober. She is introduced to Jesus and starts living a life of recovery and faith.
2007-2012 God trains Cindy by placing her in the leadership of a 12 Step Christian recovery program at her church, a local recovery center, and the Shelby County Jail.
2011 Two pastors and four individuals in recovery unite, and My Sister's Place is established. The first three residents are housed in a rental unit.
2012 MSP is able to purchase a duplex to house 10 women. This location is later referred to as Wilson Drive.
2014 MSP purchases the neighboring duplex in order to house familial units. Immediately this duplex is occupied by two moms and five children.

2017 BIG house is purchased and is opened, creating the capacity for 16 more women to be served.
2018 Another expansion property is secured. This property requires renovation before women can be housed there.
2019 MSP secures an apartment for permanent after-care of a family. Volunteers work on renovating a new building.
January 2020 MSP secures a second apartment for program graduates.
March 2020 Renovations of Building 54:11 are complete.
May 2020, MSP begins leasing a commercial building and opens a RESTORE54 thrift store.
October 2020 MSP is able to purchase the RESTORE54 building.
November 2020 Building 54:11 opens, initially serving 16 women, but having the capacity to house 30 women.