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‘Restoration and Hope’: Jen Lilley Celebrates Construction of Tulsa Girls Home

Photo from Jen Lilley’s Instagram

‘Restoration and Hope’: Jen Lilley Celebrates Construction of Tulsa Girls Home

By Movieguide® Contributor

Actress Jen Lilley is celebrating the construction of new “transition homes” for the Tulsa Girls Home organization. 

“This looks like wreckage, but for me, this is a picture of restoration and hope,” she wrote on Instagram. “It’s a long time dream that’s actually happening. We’re breaking ground on our Tulsa Girls Home transition homes.”

Tulsa Girls Home “exists to shelter, empower, restore and support teen girls who have been placed in foster care,” their website reads. “Every day we are on a mission to equip and empower each girl through their uniquely-given talents so they can discover their purpose, value, and destiny.”

Lilley, who serves as TGH’s secretary, has been a supporter of Tulsa Girls Home for years. In 2021, she urged Sapulpa, Oklahoma, residents not to oppose the construction of a new home.

“These girls have nowhere to go. They are 12-18, with no criminal record. These girls deserve the best!” the actress said. “How do they expect these children to find healing and not be trafficked or become victims of further abuse? I have absolute faith this is something that God wants.”

Tulsa Girls Home eventually was able to build its ranch location for girls in need. 

Lilley is also an outspoken advocate for foster care. The Western Journal reported, “Lilley grew into her mission to help foster care children by growing up in a home where her parents took into their home those ‘who just needed help transitioning in their life.'”

“And so that planted an early seed of empathy for me,” she said.

Movieguide® previously reported on Lilley’s partnership with Tulsa Girls Home:

Actress, singer and former Movieguide® Awards host Jen Lilley said that despite her many accolades, her personal favorite achievement is her time spent as a mother.

“I suppose my top three professional projects are THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS, U.S.S. CHRISTMAS and THE ARTIST, if I had to pick. And personally, being a foster and adoptive parent through Childhelp and working to establish the Tulsa Girls Home are my greatest achievements,” she told City Lifestyle.

“I could literally write a book on my foster care journey and the ways it’s shaped me and adjusted my perspective on so many things in life, but I’ll simply say that being a foster and adoptive parent is the greatest experience of my life,” Lilley said. “While foster parenting is also the hardest thing I’ve ever done, it’s the most rewarding. The way it breaks you as a person is difficult but beautiful, because it opens your heart to new levels of love and empathy you really can’t experience any other way… I understand that not everyone is called to be a foster parent, but everyone is called to care for the children in the broken foster care system.”

“These are children who experienced an extremely traumatic set of circumstances through no fault of their own, who deserve the same love, safety, and education as any other child,” she added. “If we don’t do something, who will? There are so many ways to get involved.”