SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — Ten years after her passion for helping the homeless began, a Wisconsin woman has helped more than 150 mothers and children get on their feet. 

Shelter From the Storm Ministries can house up to 11 women and their children at a time. They get their own suites in a building in a residential neighborhood of Sun Prairie. 

“The women who stay in the house together tend to form friendships that last beyond the house, and they support each other,” said Tami Fleming, executive director of Shelter From the Storm. 

It’s a transitional housing shelter, which means mom can stay for up to a year, sometimes a little longer if they need extra time. 

“They choose their own goals, and get to the place where they want to go, which is their own apartment, their own independence,” Fleming said. 

She oversees pretty much every aspect of the shelter, every new program they institute. She raves about the rest of her team there. 

They help women find new skills and jobs, get them on the right track if they want to go back to school, and even provide some trauma therapy.

“91% of women who experience homelessness have been sexually assaulted,” she said. “And there's a great racial disparities as well in the number of people who experience homelessness.” 

She first got into this work ten years ago, when she was volunteering at St. Mary’s emergency room. A woman had been brought in experiencing a psychotic break. She was dirty, and thin, and alone. Fleming was there to sit with patients who came in by themselves. 

“I asked her 'Honey, do you need to have another blanket? Do you want a pillow? Do you need a glass of water?’ And she just kept on crying and talking to people that I didn't see,” Fleming said. "It didn't seem like she even registered that I was there.” 

Fleming got a chair and started praying, asking for a way to help this woman. 

“It felt really morally wrong, that she would be that age, and alone, and so sick,” she said. “As I was praying, silently, she turned and cranked her head and looked at me and she said, ‘You got to tell God to help me. I can't take this no more.’ That was just kind of like a spiritual, swift kick to the head at that time in my life. It stayed with me.” 

That led to some street outreach, and starting Friends of the State Street Family.

Eventually, she ended up at Shelter From the Storm Ministries. It opened in 2017, and since then, 49 women with 111 children have had a home while they got back on their feet. 

They keep lots of those kids’ photos on the wall.

“To me, that’s the best thing to walk by every day, and see their little faces,” Fleming said. 

There are also walls filled with certificates and plaques, celebrating residents’ achievements. It ranges from getting a new job, to getting their GED, to a kids’ grade at school.

Helping more women reach safety, health, and independence is Fleming’s life’s work. 

“It's a real privilege to be a part of that kind of work, because it restores your faith,” she said. “I've been blessed in a lot of ways from this work. I feel like sometimes, more than I've ever blessed anyone else.”