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Hope Initiative Promotes Positive Partnerships

Information reprinted with permission of the Courier Times, local newspaper New Castle, Indiana  www.thecouriertimes.com

HOPE Initiative promotes positive partnerships

 
 
 

Posted: Saturday, January 31, 2015 11:09 am

If you are looking for a social night out on the town, don’t come to a HOPE Initiative meeting. If you’re looking instead to extend dignity to every New Castle resident, a HOPE meeting might be just what you’re looking for.

“We’re not a club. We don’t take attendance other than to put people on our mailing list. If you don’t make it to a meeting for six months we don’t shame you. We’ve had close to 300 people come to meetings. Our goal is to extend dignity to every citizen of New Castle and the surrounding area,” HOPE Initiative co-director Cathy Hamilton said.

Led by a core group of directors and project chairs, HOPE has grown over the past six years or so from a small group tasked with looking into New Castle poverty issues into an eclectic gathering of many volunteers dedicated to facilitating partnerships with other groups to improve the quality of life for all Henry County residents.

HOPE Initiative has a board of directors and a group of officers. They include Hamilton, Jimmy Kidd and Beverly Hankenhoff, who serve as co-directors; Jerry Cash is the group’s treasurer; and Dennis Hamilton, who serves as HOPE’s secretary.

HOPE Initiative hosted a series of five community forums a couple of years ago at which they asked the nearly 250 people who attended several questions, including what they liked most about where they live and what community issues needed to be addressed.

From that input several projects were identified. Once what needed to be done was determined the challenge was to find project chairs who were not only interested in volunteering, but who were passionate – almost fanatically so, according to Hamilton – about accomplishing their mission regardless of the resistance they encountered or the obstacles they had to clear.

Those involved believe very strongly that forming partnerships is the key to success.

“The spirit of HOPE Initiative is that we can get a lot more done collaborating with other people than by starting our own thing,” Hamilton said. “We facilitate partnerships. Everything we do, we look at who we can partner with.”

Cash agreed and shared an example.

“We partner with Christian Love Center to put on a back to school program and festival. Rather than trying to do the whole thing ourselves we’re working with another group already invested in that type of activity,” he said.

Hankenhoff added that what HOPE isn’t is a silo, an organization that stands alone and doesn’t want help from anyone else.

“I’m very much opposed to that,” she said.

Kidd noted that helping can be contagious and cited Clean Up Day as an illustration.

“Sometimes the neighbors will lend a hand. Once they see what we’re doing they’ll come out and help clean up. After they see what HOPE volunteers are doing then they’re willing to kick in and help too,” he said.

Projects include annual poverty simulations, hosting plant swaps, back to school assistance, a community spring clean up day, an outdoor living and garden tour, advocating student participation in the state’s 21st Century Scholars program, revitalization of the downtown business district, a housing needs assessment, revitalizing the Senior Center, enhancing educational opportunities, a “Donut Run” to show local emergency response personnel they are appreciated, attractive signage at all major city entrances, better lighting in high traffic areas, establishing a Housing Court, hiring a full-time code enforcement officer for New Castle, doing a better job of marketing Henry County to outsiders, and addressing drug abuse and related problems.

Hamilton praised New Castle’s elected leaders for taking HOPE Initiative suggestions to heart and going after grants to help accomplish some of the projects the group considers priorities, and pointed out that by spending $35,000 to fund a housing assessment $700,000 in Blight Elimination Program funds were received; a $10,000 expenditure to join a grant writing consortium resulted in a $343,000 grant to help rehabilitate housing for the elderly and disabled; and a $35,000 investment resulted in a $199,000 grant for sidewalk construction.

During the course of the next three years HOPE and its partners will continue to work on those projects already identified and has also made plans to establish an Early Education Center, provide landscaping in downtown New Castle, establish bike trails, construct or rebuild sidewalks where needed, improve New Castle’s greenspaces including establishing a community garden and orchard, help with housing rehabilitation and development, continue to improve educational and recreational opportunities, and enhance public transportation.

“Hope is yearning for something better and it’s a good path to be on,” Hamilton said. “We know we can’t fix every issue, but it feels healthy to be on the journey. HOPE Initiative is just a group of people who have agreed to hear other people’s voices with grace.”

HOPE Initiative isn’t an exclusive club; it takes the idea of strength through diversity to heart. The organization is open to everyone with an interest in helping regardless of socio-economic status, race, creed, age, or political affiliation. The group meets at 6:30 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at New Castle-Henry County Public Library and welcomes new people.