First Light, Inc. is a center for homeless women and children that opened in May 2000. The center is an outgrowth of an emergency night shelter that operated in the basement  of  First Presbyterian Church in downtown Birmingham, Alabama for over 15 years. The church offered nightly shelter to 15,  and  sometimes  as  many  as 42,  women and children.   This community program was an inter-denominational  and  inter-faith  mission  supported  by  a  number  of  faith-based  organizations  in  Birmingham  and  operated  solely  by  volunteers.   As  the  need  for  shelter  and  other  services for women and children continued  to  grow throughout the 1990s,  we  realized  a  more permanent solution was required.   First Light was founded  to  expand  the  services for homeless women and children in the Birmingham area and to incorporate the  emergency shelter for women and children that operated in the basement of First Presbyterian Church.