Promoting possibilities

Mothers in Crisis founder advocating message oh hope in April

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook staff writer

When Rosalind Tompkins talks about how being hopeful can change a life, she doesn’t rely on a playbook.

What she tells is simply her life experience. It’s a story she shares to let others know that leaving a life of addiction behind is possible.

More than 25 years ago, she started Mothers in Crisis to do just that as a support group. Her mission today is focused on hope. It has been adopted beyond the United State to countries like Nepal, Pakistan and Kenya.

The movement started when Mothers in Crisis convinced the National Day Calendar to designate April as the National Month of Hope. It’s been four years now and Tompkins’ organization recently highlighted the month with a press conference where a list of honorees were recognized with Hopee Awards.

There couldn’t be a better time to emphasize hope, as far as Tompkins is concerned.

“There is a holiday for everything, but I believe hope is important; the expectation and the belief that things will get better and can get better,” Tompkins said. “It’s so needed, especially in the times we are living in with so many things that are so hopeless.”

Suicide is one of the social ills that Tompkins is confident that hope can fix, despite its impact. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United State and it’s the second leading cause of death among people ages 10 to 34.

That is an upward trend that Tompkins would like to turnaround.

“They didn’t have the concept that if I keep living I can do better,” she said. “People were giving up all hope; not even believing it was worth living. 

“I believe having a month you can focus on having a time when you could become more hopeful. Giving hope to others is very important in our society.”

The turning point for Tompkins came four years before she founded Mothers in Crisis. She had struggled with using drugs and after getting clean she formed the organization of women who were conflicted the same way.

She has since earned a PhD. Mothers in Crisis became an outreach mission of Turning Point International Church, where she and her husband Richard Lester Kwame Lewis are pastors.

A book followed. She titled it “As long as there is breath in your body there is still hope.”

During the recent recognition of supporters and volunteers with Hopee Awards, one of the posthumous recipients was Rev. Dr. Bernyce Clausell. The award was presented to her daughter Aaronetta Frison.

Clausell was a trailblazer for women being on the pulpit. Her daughter recalled her preaching at the Calvary Baptist Church when it was on Joe Luis Street. She’s credited with forming the Clergy Women’s Council, a local support organization for females in the ministry.

She had plenty of inspiration for starting the organization, Frison said.

“She faced a lot of dissent and negativity,” she said. “But I think that was one of the things that forced her forward to open up opportunities for other women, and then for anyone.”

Clausell’s work made her an icon in communities where she served, including taking her message of hope to prisoners around the state.

 “She just became known as a person to bring hope,” Frison said. “She would pray for you at the drop of a hat. People would stop her everywhere for prayer.”

At age 95, Clausell penned the book “No time to die.” It became part of her legacy that led to her daughter picking up a Hopee Award for her.

“I felt like I was standing in some big shoes,” Frison said. “I felt so honored to actually be a blood relative of such a powerful woman. I just feel humble and grateful for this woman being in my life.”

HOPEE AWARD LIST
Benjamin Crump, Civil Rights Attorney; Dr. Temple O. Robinson, MD, Bond Community Health Center; Barbara Boone, Leadership Tallahassee; Second Harvest Food Bank of the Big Bend; Florida A&M University COVID19 Testing Center; Pastor Darius Washington, lead Pastor Faith Life Church Tallahassee; The DEE Dee Jackson Foundation, TJ, Taj and Taryll Jackson; The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation Taraji Henson; The State Of South Carolina, (State Symbol, “While I Breathe, I Hope); Urban League of the Upstate Project Ready.
Posthumous HOPEE Awardees
Rev. Dr. Bernyce Clausell, Cicely Tyson, Chadwick Boseman, Rep. John Lewis