JOHN COFFELTEditor

Founded in 2003, Blue Monarch, a long-term, residential and therapeutic Christian treatment community for women and their children, is now planning a large addition to the campus located in Hillsboro that will coincide with serving the community for two decades.

Blue Monarch Founder and President Susan Binkley and Engineer Scot St. John received site plan approval for the two story, 19,853.48 square foot building during the Aug. 22 Coffee County Planning Commission meeting.

“This building will allow us to better serve the families we have now, and by moving our offices out of the main house on our property,” Binkley said. “We will be able to turn those spaces back into bedrooms for additional families.”

“We have seen a dramatic rise in child trauma over the past couple of years, and have developed a robust children’s program to meet those specific needs,” she said. “We focus just as much on the child’s recovery as the mother’s. We also focus on teaching moms to parent sober, which is part of what makes Blue Monarch unique.”

The plans include a large event hall a chapel and rooms for classes.

“One of the things we wanted to do was make it look like a barn so it fits within the community well,” Binkley said.

She said that since the pandemic, the group has seen a spike in child trauma cases.

“A whole lot of what we’re doing is to meet those needs,” she said.

Most program related activities will be on the ground floor, while administrative offices will be on the second.

“We have absolutely outgrown our space,” Binkley said.

Blue Monarch has a waiting list of over 200 families in addition to those currently in the program. In 2022, the recovery program served 29 women and 25 residential children.

“We have people reaching out from all over the place, Binkley said.

Other similar facilities from as far as Canada have visited Blue Monarch to learn from its success.

Blue Monarch has received a one-time gift from the state of $100,000 that will be used to help fund the expansion.

According to Blue Monarch, since 2003, Blue Monarch has served nearly 1,000 women and children and close to 350 children have been reunited with their mothers who had previously lost custody.

Binkley said that Blue Monarch has saved Coffee County just over $5 million by housing women that would otherwise have been incarcerated and children in foster care.

“We are proud of where we are,” Binkley said. “This is our 20th year, a significant year and we’re in a place where it doesn’t make any sense not to be able to serve more.”

The Planning Commission unanimously approved the site plan for the facility, which will include a full sprinkler system, a fire tank and a fire pump. The facility will have a large capacity septic system that is awaiting state approval.

The commission granted variance on the parking requirements for the facility. While on paper the occupancy of the facility, by code, would require 409 new parking spaces, the actual need of the facility of 30 spaces.

Chairman of the Planning Commission Steve Cunningham called the group a great value to the county.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.