It’s been a year of new beginnings for Teresa Kitt.

Clean and sober after 28 years in and out of jail, the 48-year-old is busy raising her feisty granddaughter, keeping her life on track and working to help other women overcome their pasts for a brighter tomorrow.

“It’s been a long road for me,” Ms. Kitt said as she prepared to be honored as one of the first graduates of the Sankofa House for Women in Sharon.

The transitional house for female offenders offers support and connects women with resources to help them live as contributing members of the community. The staff aims to provide a “firm foundation” through unconditional love and does not pass judgment.

“Tonight is a testament that sisterhood truly is powerful,” Sankofa House board member Marcia Moyer said at a ceremony this week in the Forum at Penn State Shenango.

Sankofa House founder and director Lynda Moss-McDougall said Ms. Kitt is a prime example of what the program is designed to do.

Ms. Kitt owes much of her success, she said, to Sankofa House and the people who live, work and volunteer there.

“At Sankofa House, they opened up a whole new world to me,” said Ms. Kitt, who struggled with drug addiction. “They taught me how to live a normal life.”

She voted for the first time this year. She discovered a calling to help others. And she’s found comfort and guidance through her church family at New and Living Way Apostolic Church in Farrell.

“God is really opening some doors for me,” said Ms. Kitt, noting that she had to learn to love herself so she could be there for her children and grandchildren.

Ms. Kitt, Brenda Thorpe and Melony Culver are the first “beautiful Sankofa House divas,” as Ms. Moss-McDougall put it, to complete the program and move out on their own. That’s when the “real work” begins, she said.

And it’s time to exercise the meaning of the word “sankofa,” said Ms. Moss-McDougall. They must reach back and help someone else.

“I am very proud of these ladies,” said Ms. Moss-McDougall. “They made me cry, but they’re happy tears.”

“It’s been a very challenging journey for them, but they were up for the challenge,” she said. “They came into the house with their minds made up.”

One thing that drove Ms. Kitt was wanting to take care of her family – something she said she wasn’t always able to do, which made her feel guilty.