Restoration Center opens in Brooksville to help formerly incarcerated women

Brooksville gained a new reentry resource at 13460 Olympic Village Lane when The Restoration Center of Florida opened its doors to women leaving incarceration and trying to rebuild stable lives.

Sheri Haulk cut the ribbon on the center, which is designed to provide temporary living accommodations, spiritual training and behavioral training for women who have been incarcerated. The opening brought two buildings into service, one tied to a $26,000 contribution from Citibank and another honoring support from Lynnda Spears with the Home Shopping Network, while church members also donated $10,000. The funding mix underscored that the project was built through a patchwork of institutional and community backing, not a single grant or donor.

The center’s roots reach back years. The Restoration Center of Florida says the ministry began as a prayer by Paul and Sheri Haulk over the course of twenty years, and Sheri Haulk said the idea was first shaped by her late husband’s own difficult experiences with jail and reentry. Paul Henry Haulk, who died on May 2, 2023, was described in his obituary as a Missionary to the Incarcerated.

The nonprofit formed in Florida on May 4, 2015, meaning the Brooksville opening capped an 11-year organizational timeline. The property itself is described by the center as a 21-acre site, giving the ministry room to operate a program that is meant to do more than offer a bed for the night.

That matters in Hernando County because women leaving prison often face the hardest reentry barriers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines reentry services as help that assists someone in reintegrating into society. The U.S. Department of Justice identifies transitional housing, employment help and mentoring as key elements of successful reentry. The Florida Department of Corrections tracks quarterly recidivism and inmate-admissions reports, a reminder that the county and state will eventually measure success in outcomes, not ribbon cuttings.

National research has also found that formerly incarcerated women are especially vulnerable to homelessness and unemployment. For Brooksville, the question now is whether The Restoration Center can help women move from custody to stability with enough structure to reduce repeat arrests, family disruption and the strain that follows when people leave prison without a place to go.