Summer 2012 Volume 1, Issue 1 “New Beginnings” Hope Thru Housing Opens First Residents’ House Hope Thru Housing is a comprehensive, thirty-month, residential substance abuse treatment center and aftercare program. Inside this issue: From My Desk To You 2 HTH Farm Market Opens 3 A Therapeutic Community 3 About Hope Thru Housing 4 In October of 2011 this 1920’s house, located just east of downtown Columbus, OH, was purchased and updated to serve as our first male housing unit. Capable of housing five residents and staff on two floors, this property has now become home to our first residents. The residents share the responsibilities of cleaning, cooking, and yard work. While learning daily routines and developing a sense of community they learn how to change their old behaviors and live and deal with life clean and sober. Tony Matthews joins HTH Staff as Resident Manger In November of 2011 Tony moved from North Carolina to join the staff of HTH as our first Resident House Manager. Tony, a recovering member of the community himself, has a strong background in construction and helped with the remodeling project of our first house. More importantly he brings with him a strong commitment to help those choosing to go through the HTH program change their lives. In addition to serving as House Manger, Tony will also be teaching residents remodeling and construction job skills. “New Beginnings” Page 2 From my desk to you After moving back to Columbus a little over two years ago I started putting this program together. The Corporation was formed and our 501(c)(3) letter was received from the IRS, granting Hope Thru Housing the status as a charitable nonprofit organization. HTH is modeled after Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, a highly successful two year program located in Durham, NC that I had the privilege of working with for ten years. After winning my own twenty year battle with addiction, the knowledge learned at TROSA and my drive to help others overcome their addictions led to the development of Hope Thru Housing. And I was determined to do it in my home town of Columbus where a long term program was badly needed. Many exciting things have been going on since we officially opened the doors Providing a residential substance abuse program that enables individuals to be on our first residents’ house back in early April and accepted our first resident. On April 14th we opened our first vocational training business— Farmers Market in suburban Linworth OH. on Rt. 161 between Sawmill Road and Rt. 315. This Market offers an excellent venue for teaching marketing skills and business management to our residents while helping us achieve our goal of being 60% self- productive, recovering funded. The Market has been very well received in the community with write-ups members of the in the local community papers, a news piece on NBC 4 and an extensive interview community by providing comprehensive on “All Sides with Ann Fisher” on NPR Radio. Without a fundraising campaign HTH has received donations of over $80,000 to enable its inception and initial development. As we move forward, later this year we will be conducting a fundraiser with a goal of $165,000 which will enable us to treatment, work-based expand our housing offering to accommodate up to 15 residents, purchase lawn- vocational training, care equipment to be used in our second vocational training area, and fill the gap education, and continuing care. between our operating expenses and our earned income. I hope you enjoy the newsletter and will stop by our Market to pick-up some superb local produce while supporting a wonderful cause. If you have the opportunity, please consider giving to our fundraiser so we can continue to offer this great program to others in need. Sincerely, Dennis Kerr President/Founder A recent study showed that for every dollar spent on substance abuse treatment there is a $7 monetary benefit to society. Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 3 Hope Thru Housing Farm Market: Fresh Food for a Fresh Start When the new Linworth Farm Market opened April 14, it was pouring rain. HTH’s leader wasn’t discouraged though. He’d been through lots of rain and knew sunny days were coming. Dennis Kerr is the president of Hope Thru Housing , which operates its Farm Market at 2395 W. Dublin-Granville Road (Rt. 161). He and two residents of the residential substance-abuse program manned the shop, selling eggs, cheese, produce, and flowers to the few customers who had braved the elements. HTH Farm Market has a full range of plants and flowers for the garden, along with fresh local produce, organic eggs, Amish cheese, jams, jellies and home baked pies from Stevens Bakery & Orchard. Vocational training is key to HTH’s program and the Farm Market is the first of several business ventures that will both support the program and provide opportunities for clients to learn work-related skills. Several HTH residents will work alongside staff members at each business, learning valuable marketing and job skills. The produce market will be open through October; then Christmas trees will again be sold at the same location starting the day after Thanksgiving through December 23rd. For more information on HTH’s Farm Market and updates please visit: farmersmarketcolumbus.com or call 614/266-9377 Lives formerly characterized by personal pain and The Therapeutic Community failure are now A therapeutic community is a drug and alcohol free residential setting that uses a buoyed by a new hierarchical model with treatment stages that reflect increased levels of personal sense of caring and and social responsibility. The community relies on its members - both treatment a renewed sense of staff and those in recovery - as key agents of change. Therapeutic communities are hope and not lock-up facilities but “semi-closed” environments where residents choose promise. voluntarily to live. “New Beginnings” A quarterly publication of Hope Thru Housing Inc. Hope Thru Housing Inc. 6665 Huntley Road Suite N Columbus, Ohio 43229 Office: 614 / 825-6025 Farm Market & Christmas Tree Lot 614 / 266-9377 Email: [email protected] www.hthohio.org Hope Thru Housing Inc. Hope Thru Housing is a comprehensive, thirty-month, residential substance abuse treatment center and aftercare program located in Columbus, Ohio. We provide a residential substance abuse program that enables individuals to be productive, recovering members of the community by providing comprehensive treatment, work-based vocational training, education, and continuing care. The HTH philosophy is based on the Therapeutic Community principles of self-help and individual empowerment. Key elements of the treatment include work based vocational training, education, communication, peer counseling / mentoring, leadership skills development and aftercare program.