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 get women out of 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 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 of past hurts, habits, and hang-ups. 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 a Christ-centered approach to recovery and utilizes 12 Steps based recovery methods
2.
Lead by women who have walked through their recovery journeys by relying on Jesus and the 12 Steps

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

Program Impact

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

2024

100 Total Women Served
20 Program Graduates
200+ Child Visits
416 Recovery Meetings
100 Zoom Recovery Meetings
75+ Church Services
125+ Bible Study Classes
1000+ Life-Recovery Classes
500+ Coaching/Counseling Hours

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

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.

Brooke Kelley

Operations Manager

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

Senior Resident Manager

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.

Tiffany Andrews

Life Recovery Coach

Tiffany came to MSP as a resident in 2020, just a few months after she was in a car accident that took her husband’s life. She had been in active addiction for 8 years and went through many periods of being homeless, in jail, and hopeless, which led to her parental rights being terminated. She was at the end of herself, broken, angry, and had lost the will to live. Then Jesus stepped in through MSP. Tiffany was taught about Jesus’ mercy, grace, love, and forgiveness. She worked the 12 Steps for addiction recovery and also worked through her grief. Tiffany found freedom through Jesus, and she wants everyone to know that this freedom is also available to them! Working at MSP gives Tiffany the opportunity to help point other women in the direction of this freedom.

Candice Mims

Life Recovery Coach

Ever since she was a child, Candice was a runner. She ran from all of her problems, and she eventually ran to addiction. Her life was full of unhealthy relationships with men, three divorces, drug addiction, alcoholism, time in jail, work release, felonies, and prison. Plus, two hurt children that were watching her do this to herself. But God stepped in and Candice was court-ordered to My Sister’s Place in 2018. The MSP program introduced her to God, the 12 Steps, and love. It changed her life. Today, Candice’s life is filled with being a mother, a grandmother, a wife, a member of her church, and serving on staff at My Sister’s Place. She is so grateful to now be in a position where she gets to watch other women turn their lives around, too.

Bridget Peters

Life Recovery Coach

Bridget was court-ordered to MSP after being incarcerated for 5 months. This was not her first time being incarcerated, and it was the result of a lifestyle of using meth and heroin, as well as misusing pain medication. Bridget was caught in the mentality that her life was all it could ever be: lost, broken, and full of darkness. Yet, after starting her recovery journey at MSP, she started to become honest, open-minded, and willing to do whatever it took to change. A year later, her court order was over, but she chose to stay at MSP because, there, she had discovered a new way of life. Bridget is now serving on staff, and she is more independent than ever before. She lives in MSP’s aftercare housing, where her children get to stay with her on weekends. She says that, without God and MSP, none of this would be possible.

Dawn Hurt

BIG House Manager

Debra Pratt

Wilson Drive Manager

Before coming to MSP, Debra had been to prison 10 times and was facing her 11th prison sentence. She realized that she was at the lowest point in her life and she felt like she was going to die if she kept living the way she was living, but she didn’t know how to stop. She knew she had to do something different. Debra called Cindy and was released to MSP, with a court-order to complete a 12-month program. Since coming to MSP, Debra has learned how to cope with life and she has become a productive member of society. She has a job that she loves, her family has been restored, all of her legal issues have been resolved, and she serves as an MSP house leader. Debra is grateful for the loving recovery community that has supported her, and she loves getting to now share her own experience, strength, and hope with new residents.

June Stuckey

Driver

Judy Tatum

Restore54 Manager

Before coming to MSP, Judy was a prisoner of her own mind. She battled addiction for many years, which resulted in multiple stays in jail and prison. After losing her home to a fire and spending some time in the psych ward, Judy entered the MSP program. Here, she found a personal relationship with God and worked the 12 Steps. When Judy lost her daughter to an overdose, MSP was able to help her through this tragedy. She has obtained a driver’s license after 20 years of revocation, she is warrant-free, and she is in the process of reconciling with her grandchildren. Judy now lives in MSP’s aftercare housing and continues to stay involved in the program because she feels that it is the best treatment facility she has ever experienced. Her goal is to be a light to others, letting them know that there is a solution and that it is never too late because God is bigger.

Shavon Hyatt

Restore43 Manager

Shavon started abusing drugs and alcohol as a teenager, and she struggled with these addictions for three decades, in addition to issues with gambling, unhealthy relationships with men, and a shopping addiction. She now knows that she was searching the world in an attempt to fill a God-sized hole. Shavon’s lifestyle led to her spending a year in jail and losing everything she had, including her family. She tried to get clean and sober many times on her own, but she was unsuccessful. Finally, in May of 2023, she cried out to God for help and, less than a week later, He brought her to My Sister’s Place. MSP is the only recovery program that Shavon has ever participated in and she believes that it was the best decision of her life. Here, she received priceless life lessons and an immeasurable amount of love. Shavon now has true hope, joy, and peace in her life. She lives in MSP aftercare housing and she loves working at MSP because it allows her to give others hope that there is freedom from life controlling issues.

Lacy Baraglia

Restore43 Assistant Manager

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 Christian 12 Step 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 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.