Tina Troup, a two-year Lithonia resident, knows her way around a construction site as well as she does a kitchen and she feels other women should know the same.

The mother of four, along with her sister Cherre Pace, are the co-founders of Mothers Rebuilding Society, a 6-year-old nonprofit organization that provides vocational training and guidance to unskilled women in the non-traditional fields of construction.

Both learned construction skills early in life from their carpenter father, Houston Newton. As divorced mothers, they knew they could not sit and wait for someone to take care of basic household repairs for them, so they decided to do these things for themselves.

"We have had to tune up a car, drop the motor in the washing machine and make home repairs," said Pace.

Troup and Pace started Mothers Rebuilding Society with a $150,000 grant from Atlanta Workforce Development to train women while rebuilding a dilapidated house on Donnelly Street in southwest Atlanta. They worked with 15 unskilled women, primarily from homeless shelters, and completed the work as well as taught the women new skills.

"We're not just rebuilding homes, we like to think we're rebuilding lives," said Troup, who traveled to New Jersey on Oct. 23 to receive a $5,000 grant from the 2004 Charming Shoppers VOICES campaign.

Charming Shoppers, the parent corporation of 1,050 Fashion Bug, 465 Catherine's Plus Size and 710 Lane Bryant stores around the country, honored 100 women who have chosen to raise their voices and are making a difference in their communities.

Since moving to Lithonia two years ago, Troup has focused her efforts on rebuilding the lives of the women of Lithonia's Housing Authority where she lives.

Two initiatives for which she is now seeking funding are MRS Fix-It, which provides women with basic training in home repair and renovations in order to repair the homes of senior citizens in the community, and Sewing Circle, which builds upon the self-reliance strategy called for by Atlanta author Pearl Cleage in her list of "Ten Things Every Free Woman Should Know."

Troup has worked out the "ten things" to perfection and Martha Calloway, executive director of Lithonia Housing Authority, says she doesn't know where the women who reside in public housing would be if it were not for Troup.

"She works on the Residents Advisory Board and does some of everything," said Calloway. "She has a tremendous impact on the community, especially working with women and getting them to be more self-sufficient."

For information, call Troup at 678-598-8829.