Over the years, Casa Teresa has truly become a home with a heart. For the mothers living here, they have found a loving home where they are supported, appreciated, and motivated to become the best version of themselves.
The drive to create this safe home for women started with Sally and Neill Sullivan, the founders of Casa Teresa. At first, they worked at Right to Life, an office to help pregnant women. They assisted women with referring them to a clinic to get a pregnancy test. If they were pregnant, they helped them decide the best path for themselves. But, most of these expecting mothers had nowhere to go and often slept on couches at friend’s houses. In 1976, Neill and Sally were inspired by Mother Teresa and her desire to help and built a home for pregnant women to provide housing and more support. Two blocks from the Right to Life office in Santa Ana, there was a residential building that Neill was interested in. This building had been owned by the same people for 35 years, and the manager told Neill that they had never expressed a desire to sell the building. Days later, Neill drove by and the building had a “for sale” sign. And that’s how Casa Teresa was born. The founders call this, among many other moments, a sign of God’s work. After a few years, Casa Teresa relocated to a building in Orange that still serves as a home for pregnant women and their babies today. Now Casa Teresa provides multiple programs that help mothers achieve their goals in their personal and professional life. Every day the mothers make positive steps forward with the tools they learned from the programs and staff. Among their accomplishments, we see the women getting their high school equivalency, getting a job, going to college, reconnecting with their family, and welcoming their babies into the world. Their success is the fulfillment of Neill and Sally’s dream. It is the inspiration to other moms and the drive of our staff to continue to persevere in our quest as we change lives to help create families that thrive.
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