Hope House Ministries Inc

We believe poverty is not rooted in material lack, rather in broken relationships. This is why we exist to alleviate physical and spiritual poverty through gospel restoration. We began in 2009 with a heart to serve the downtown area of Bowling Green, known as the Enterprise community, where 10,000 people live in this 3.6 sq. mi. area.

In this area, 44% live at or below the poverty level, 53% are unemployed and 55% over the age of 25 are without a HS education or GED. Broken homes and lives are all around us. 

We are a local outreach center supported by our local community, partnering churches and local businesses. We focus on three areas: The Home, The Neighborhood, and The School. In these areas we seek to walk with those in need rather than do for. Our heart is driven by partnering with people in need by giving them dignity and value and learning from them because we know each person in this area was created in the image of God and has something offer our city. Our heart is to see what assets and gifts are already in this forgotten area of the community and see how those gifts and assets can help change the community from the inside out. We do all that we do by partnering with the churches inside and outside our target area. 

In the Home

• Short Term Crisis Assistance outside of their control through food, clothing and financial assistance.
• Long Term Development programs: Jobs for Life, Faith and Finances programs, and Matched Savings Accounts (IDA). 
• Things to Come: we are changing the model of our food and clothing assistance programs by opening a community store and planning to start a Food Co-Op with community members so they do not have to go through the shame of asking for a handout. Also, we are studying how we can offer micro financing to individuals in a financial bind. 

In the Neighborhood 

• Move Into the Neighborhood Currently, we help people from our partnering churches move into the area to begin advocating for this area of Bowling Green so they can partner with the community and build redemptive relationships. 
• Affordable Christmas Program. Rather than empower others to give a gift to a child. We focus on both the child and the parent. We set up a Christmas store with gifts discounted to 1/10 of the retail cost so that a parent can receive the gift of value by purchasing the gift themselves to give to their child rather than having someone do for them what they so desperately want to do for their child themselves.
• Neighborhood Home Rehab. When invited by a neighbor to help them, we will partner with a home owner to do basic home repairs.
• Things to Come, Downtown Bike Shop. This will help us care and partner with kids in the neighborhood to provide mentoring opporutinities. The Downtown Bike Shop is a dream, but you can help make it a reality. We want to empower local neighborhood children by teaching them the value of hard work and respect and provide ways they can serve their community. The bike shop will give a child a safe place to work on their own bike, repair donated bikes which allow them an opportunity to earn new bikes and new parts for their bike. The Downtown Bike Shop will give a child the environment to learn new skills and build long lasting relationships with a volunteer who cares. Your donations and contributions will help us purchase bike parts to repair donated bikes, stock the shop with the needed tools, and help us pay a part-time employee to manage the shop and connect volunteers to mentoring opportunities. 

In the School: 

• Parker Bennett Curry Elementary School partnership. We send our volunteers to support their mentor program, Adopt the Classroom and in their cafeteria.
• The Bowling Green Backpack Program through Feeding America. This program assists children in the community who would otherwise go hungry on the weekends. 

Our drive is to build relationships and walk with those in this part of our city. Our hope is lives will be changed through finding hope in a relationship with Jesus and getting connected to local church near their home. Consider giving and partnering with us. Your donations will make an eternal impact in someone else's life and give them a voice. Learn more about us by visiting our website at www.hopehousebg.com or by emailing the Executive Director, Bryan Lewis at bryan@hopehousebg.com