Community members, supporters and local officials gather Thursday for the grand opening and ribbon cutting of LightHouse Recovery Center’s new Little Lights Childcare Center in Downtown Fresno. The facility will allow mothers in recovery to live with their children while receiving treatment and other services. Photos by Ben Hensley

The LightHouse Recovery Center celebrated the grand opening of its new Little Lights Childcare Center with a ribbon cutting Thursday, expanding the Fresno nonprofit’s recovery program to allow mothers to live with their children while receiving treatment and other services.

Community members, supporters and local officials gathered for the ceremony and open house at the new facility at 235 N. Fulton St. in Downtown Fresno.

Little Lights will provide women with the same recovery, education, therapy and reentry services available through LightHouse while giving their children a place to live and receive childcare during the day.

‘We’ll figure it out later.’

For LightHouse founder Vikki Luna, the idea grew out of a problem the organization had encountered for years — women with children needed its sober living services, but the organization lacked the space, childcare and transportation needed to adequately serve families.

That need became particularly clear about three years ago, when a pregnant woman with little family support asked to enter the program.

“We didn’t have the care that we needed to provide for the little baby that she was going to give birth to,” Luna said during Thursday’s ceremony. “I went home that night and I felt like, if we didn’t say yes, that baby was not going to see the light of day.”

Luna called the woman back.

“You can come. We’ll figure it out later,” she told her.

The organization ultimately found a family willing to care for the child while the mother received services, but Luna said the experience became part of the inspiration for Little Lights and a more permanent way to keep families together during treatment.

A need years in the making

At the new facility, children will live with their mothers rather than visiting them on weekends or staying elsewhere while their mothers participate in the program.

Mothers will be able to leave their children onsite while they attend classes or go to work, with children cared for by background-checked service providers, Luna said.

“What this house represents is, women can now come to us for the same exact services that the women on L Street are receiving, but they can have their children living with them,” Luna said.

Keeping mothers and children together

The home was recently purchased and renovated in a three-month turnaround, with community partners and local tradespeople contributing labor, materials and services.

Luna said several companies donated services and materials, including plumbing, doors and flooring.

Keith McCain, chairman of the LightHouse board, said the facility also gives the organization an opportunity to help families earlier, aiming to prevent circumstances that result in children being separated from their mothers.

“What this building represents, I hope you see, is the ability to intervene before the children are removed from the family,” McCain said.

He said the organization’s mission extends beyond sobriety to restoring families and strengthening the broader community.

Community support brings project to life

Carlos Huerta, executive director of Fresno Pacific University’s Center for Community Transformation, highlighted the partnerships behind the project and LightHouse’s efforts to provide long-term support rather than temporary assistance.

Luna credited donors, volunteers, contractors, staff and community partners with turning the idea into a functioning home.

“I thank you to every single person who poured into making Little Lights happen,” Luna said. “We dreamt about this several years ago.”

Little Lights joins a broader network of programs operated by the faith-based LightHouse Recovery Center to help women recovering from drug and alcohol addiction through housing, education, employment training and other support.

The new center, Luna said, adds children directly to that mission.

“I’m so excited to be able to plant seeds in the gardens of the hearts of the children who are now going to come to us through Little Lights,” she said.