STORY OF HOPE HOUSE

Hope House began as a traditionally-modeled Christian charity, with services like a food pantry, financial assistance, and a clothes closet. One day in 2010, neighbors from the West End Bowling Green community filled the lobby to receive what the organization would give. One neighbor voiced a feeling that gave birth to a new direction for Hope House. Waiting in the line to receive food, he said, “I feel like we’re a bunch of cattle.” An image-bearer of God felt like livestock–stripped of dignity. That’s when we knew something had to change.

We began to have conversations with our neighbors about the issues they saw in their neighborhood and how we could walk alongside them to effect lasting change. We were no longer satisfied with meeting physical needs without opportunities to build relationships and see long-term transformation, and neither were our neighbors. People experiencing poverty often explain their situation not in physical terms, as we often do, but in emotional terms, like a feeling of hopelessness or worthlessness. We knew we had to get to the heart of the issue.

Our Mission

We hope this project will help repair relationships, break cycles of poverty, and ultimately, lead people to faith in Jesus. Our goal is to provide long-term, development programs in our neighbors’ backyard to help them experience whole-life transformation through gospel restoration.

This project will be a large addition to our existing ministry areas of faith-based education, transportation, workforce development, addiction recovery, and financial empowerment; it will allow us to add transitional housing to that list.