Impacting families’ lives is our job at Community of Hope. We want them to both heal from past trauma and to find safe and stable homes. How can we tell if we have been successful? How do we know if parents or children have made any progress?
Seeing if residents continue to not retraumatize is easy. Maggie is clean and has the tools to stay clean. She is not returning to the abusive relationship she had in the past. She now has a stable place to live and the income to pay the bills. Over 75% of the families who complete our program move into a safe place.
Measuring if residents grew and healed is a bit more subjective. When Maggie moved out, she listed many ways she had grown while she was here. She grew as a parent, seeing her children’s needs, growing in patience and understanding, setting boundaries, and communicating clearly. She grew in self confidence that she could manage by herself with the support of many friends and helpers. She learned how to resolve conflicts and how to not let shame control her actions when she makes mistakes. She can see how she needs to change and takes positive steps to make good decisions. She and we have seen so much growth. This is typical of the families who stay long enough to complete our program.
In my years at the Community of Hope, I have watched despair and fear turn to courage and resolve, self-loathing to acceptance and hope. It is not easy for them, nor for us, for we and they together must learn to interpret their particular needs and develop a plan to fulfill them. It is what we are called to do.
Gwendolyn, Hope House Staff Member
For them: new hope, stability, safety, self-respect, and independence. For us: learning with each new family what we can do better, and the indescribable joy to see them settled on a path of self-reliance and–yes–of caring for and becoming a valued and essential part of their community. We–and they–are not always successful, but way more often than not, they do succeed. And society is better for their presence, their contributions, and their joy.
Living at Community of Hope made a big difference in the lives of Maggie, Carter, and Tara. Together, we can raise enough to increase staff wages to closer to a living wage, being a part of what brings greater hope, healing, and stability to the lives of many families through your support of Community of Hope.