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| Carmen Warner-Robbins named chaplain of the American Jails Association |
| By Teri Figueroa, Staff Writer, nctimes.com |
| Published: 05/12/2011 |
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Faith was the driving force behind the prison and jail ministry that Carmen Warner-Robbins founded. Now, that unwavering belief ---- in people and a higher power ---- is being harnessed by a national organization. The woman behind Oceanside-based Welcome Home Ministries will be sworn in this weekend as the chaplain of the American Jails Association, a nonprofit for those who work in or support the nation's 3,200 or so jails. "She's just so full of life," said Gwyn Smith-Ingley, executive director of the association. Warner-Robbins, 70, will still run Welcome Home, which counsels and supports women in jail and prison. Welcome Home is also the power behind FAiR, for Future Achievers in Re-entry, a unique program in which female inmates are housed together ---- and separated from the jail's general population at Los Colinas Detention Facility ---- as they focus on addiction recovery. Many of them move into Serenity House, a sober-living house in North County, after leaving jail because Welcome Home cleared the way. The goal is to help the inmates re-enter society and succeed. Welcome Home, founded in 1996, runs on a shoestring budget and relies heavily on volunteers. But somehow, in the face of grants that run out and funding that never materializes, Warner-Robbins keeps the 15-year-old ministry not just alive, but vibrant and viable. "The fact is, I'm a cheerleader," she said. She is so much more, say those who work with her. She is a visionary whose verve swept up AJA director Smith-Ingley after meeting her last winter, when Warner-Robbins pitched a story idea for AJA's bi-monthly magazine. And while she was there, in typical fashion, Warner-Robbins asked whether there was anything she could do to help the organization. She didn't know it at the time, but the 30-year-old national group, which counts education and lobbying among its works, had an opening for a chaplain. It took a few weeks to dawn on Smith-Ingley, but one day she realized that she had found her new chaplain. "It just felt right," Smith-Ingley said. "Maybe it was divine intervention, but God said, 'Open your eyes and look right here, right in front of you.'" Smith-Ingley points to her new chaplain's long and diverse resume. Warner-Robbins has a bachelor's degree in nursing from San Diego State University, a master's degree in family health nursing from the University of San Diego, a master's degree in divinity from Fullerton Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1994. A wife for 35 years and the mother of two now-grown children, Warner-Robbins has been an emergency room nurse and a forensic health nurse. She has run prison and jail ministries. She has written and edited books and published more than three dozen professional articles in her fields. A slight woman with soft eyes and a megawatt smile, Warner-Robbins lights up any room she enters, and yet makes each person in that room feel valuable. To each of them, from the heads of national groups to drug-addicted female inmates, she delivers the same nondenominational message: I have faith in you. Her faith in God is ever-present, from gospel music in her office to the large wooden cross hanging from the walls. Being a volunteer chaplain calls for Warner-Robbins to offer personal spiritual support to the 23 board members, to give the invocations and prayers and encouraging words at semi-annual meetings and the annual conference, which is this weekend in Cincinnati. She will also write a column for the magazine. But, in true Warner-Robbins fashion, she wants to parlay her position into promoting Welcome Home as a model for re-entry programs for female inmates in jails nationwide. She is burning with ideas and suggestions and, of course, faith. "Most people at 70 are retiring," Warner-Robbins said, "but I'm just getting started." Click here to read more: |
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