Annual Report 2014-2015 HOPE CENTER ANNUAL REPORt | 2014-2015 1 Where We’ve Been... Where We’re Going Mission To care for homeless and at-risk persons by providing life-sustaining and life-rebuilding services that are comprehensive and address underlying causes. 1 HOPE CENTER ANNUAL REPORt | 2014-2015 Each person who Sinceenters 1993, theour Hope doors Center mission has stayed theis same:unique. to care for . .homeless and at risk persons by providing life-sustaining and life-rebuilding services that are comprehensive and address underlying causes. 3 contBoard of DirectorsEnts Each program and facility the Hope Center offers 4 Letter from Executive Director presents people with a new path: action over inaction, 5 Client Stories health over deterioration, recovery over addiction, and 6 Emergency Shelter a hand up over a handout. They’re going somewhere, 7 Client Stories 8 Mental Health Program/ and we’re the road they’re taking to get there. The Jacobs Hope Cafeteria Hope Center is not just a homeless shelter, but a 9 Recovery Program for Men comprehensive group of programs designed to get 10 Recovery Program for Women people off the streets and keep them off. The root causes 11 Permanent Housing of homelessness vary widely. That is why each of our 12 Housing First programs is so important. Each person who enters our 13 One Parent Scholar House doors is unique, and in need of a unique set of resources. 14 Outreach Programs Our goal is to provide each of them with the tools they 15 Donors need to rebuild their lives, leave where they’ve been 19 Seeds of Hope behind, and get to where they’re going. 20 In-kind Donors 21 Volunteers 22 Johnny Carino’s Hoops for Hope 23 Ball Homes Night of Hope 24 Don & Mira Ball Education Builds Hope our thanks to shelly Petty and Rochambeau 25 Financials Photography for many of the beautiful pictures 26 Where We’ve Been...Where We’re in this year’s Annual Report. Going HOPE CENTER ANNUAL REPORt | 2014-2015 2 Don Ball, Chair Chris Ford Timothy Melton Connie Joiner, Vice Chair 2014-2015Commissioner Board of Social Services,of d LFUCGirectorsKentucky Utilities John McCarty, Vice Chair Rufus Friday Terry Mobley Lexington Capital Advisors Lexington Herald-Leader Jim Murray Bill Rouse, Vice Chair Matthew R. Galbraith UPS Rouse Companies Community Trust & Investment Company George Privett, Jr., M.D. Mike Scanlon, Vice Chair Frank Hamilton Lexington Diagnostic Center and Open MRI Thomas & King Nally & Gibson Georgetown Al Speler Patrick Brewer, Treasurer Dr. Janie Heath Bluegrass.org Lexmark UK College of Nursing Richard Stephenson Cathy Jacobs, Secretary Mark Henderson Stoll Keenon Odgen PLLC Breeding Henderson & Hord Gail Bennett Solomon Van Meter, JD, MBA Louis Hillenmeyer, III WUKY Bill Bridges Barry Holmes Rev. Bonnie Quantrell Jones Quantrell Cadillac, Inc. Lexington Housing Authority Jean Cravens Ron Brown Steve Kelly BoARd of sustAInERs R.L. Brown Wealth Management Central Bank Harry Cohen Malcolm Ratchford, M.S., CCAP Danesh Mazloomdoost, M.D. R. Douglas Ezzell Community Action Council Pain Management Medicine Ellie Hawse Chauncey S.R. Curtz Scott McKinney Gordon Hyde, MD Scientific Imaging Technology Dinsmore & Shohl, LLP William James Sprow, III Robert Straus, MD This year, Lexington lost a great friend and generous philanthropist Inwith theMemoriam passing of Don Jacobs, Sr. Long-time supporters of rebuilding lives, most recently Don and Cathy Jacobs built the Jacobs Hope Cafeteria on West Loudon, a beautiful facility which serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner to hundreds of homeless, veteran, and mentally-ill clients every day. They also built the Don and Cathy Jacobs House which houses men in recovery, veterans, employment and mental health programs. As part of his Hope Center involvement, Don Don Jacobs, Sr. has supported events, capital campaigns and emergency shelter 1934-2015 renovations plus the One Parent Scholar House. He, and his wife 3 HOPE CENTER ANNUAL REPORt | 2014-2015 Cathy, will always be a part of the Hope Center family. He was a man who put his caring into action and he will be greatly missed. It is customary to devote this space to describing the path the Hope Center has followed during the fiscal year just concluded. For instance, in December we entered into a contract withLetter the Lexington-Fayette from Executive Urban County Government director to initiate and conduct a Housing First program. Housing First is an approach to homelessness that has gained a lot of support in recent years. The idea is to get homeless people into affordable permanent housing as quickly as possible and offer needed services to them once they are housed. For many homeless people it is the most promising approach. While reviewing the year, however, it occurred to me that I first came to the Hope Center 20 years ago this fall. Numbers with zeros at the end of them tend to spur a certain amount of reflection. In 1995 the Hope Center managed one building, the city-owned emergency shelter. About 130 men slept there on an average night. We now own or manage facilities where an average of 800 men, women and children find a safe and secure place to sleep at night. That includes about 80 parents and 100 children at One Parent Scholar House. That also includes the Emergency Shelter, recovery centers for both men and women, two permanent housing facilities, again one for men and one for women, a transitional housing residence, and a new dining facility. We also direct a recovery program in the local detention center, although, as you might suspect, we do not oversee the residential aspect of that program. Looking back at the road from then to now, I can’t help remembering the many generous supporters who made these things possible. I think of Don and Mira Ball and of Billy Gatton and Bonnie Quantrell Jones. Without them the Hope Center would have simply closed within weeks. Then there is Dr. George Privett, Jr. His support for the Hope Center Foundation and the recovery center bearing his name has been crucial. The backing of the family of Barbara Hardwick Rouse has appeared in many ways, including the permanent housing facility for clients coming out of our women’s recovery program. Doug Ezzell and his family have been steadfast in their support. Don and Cathy Jacobs were instrumental in the construction of our two most recent buildings and the renovation of the original emergency shelter. We will miss Don. Then there are the people who do the hardest work of all, the many dedicated and caring people of the Hope Center staff. I am thankful for them every day. It has been quite a journey over the last two decades. The Hope Center has come a long way. What is even more important is the fact that thousands of desperate people have also come a long way, the long way back on the path from homelessness and hopelessness to lives of stability and self-reliance. Let me end by thanking so many of you who will read this page. Your support and generosity keep this place running. More than 14,000 individuals and businesses have given to the Hope Center over the last twenty years. That is humbling. Thank you so much. Cecil Dunn, Executive Director HOPE CENTER ANNUAL REPORt | 2014-2015 4 client stories We help. We heal. We give hope. Before coming to the Hope Center, I was a choir director at my dad’s church, I studied music, ballet, “Everything outwardlymodern, was jazz, fine, voice, and but tap atI a performingwas so torn arts high up school, on andthe was inside.” a constant performer. I left high – Greg, Men’s Recoveryschool my Program senior year to take a job on a cruise ship. From there, the opportunities started rolling in. I went to Japan, Finland, Sweden — all over the world, performing. At first I was just a dancer, then a singer-dancer, then a company manager. In between trips, I did shows at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Music Theatre of Louisville, and Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, and I was always in community shows. Between all of these jobs, I started feeling lonely and overwhelmed, so I drank. I went to other recovery programs and had stints of sobriety here and there, but nothing ever stuck. Slowly but surely I just stopped auditioning for shows, and then my word wasn’t any good. My drinking made me doubt what I could do and what I deserved. And then it got to the point where drinking stopped making me feel better, and that’s the most miserable feeling - when it doesn’t work. To everyone else, nothing looked wrong. I had money, a car, a beautiful apartment. Everything outwardly was fine, but I was so torn up on the inside. In fact, everyone who saw me would always say “Oh, you’re in such great shape, you’re fine, you’re so young, you just don’t know when to say when.” And for years I believed that. I could not make myself see that I was an alcoholic, and that I was spiritually and mentally bankrupt. Once you’ve got recovery in you, it’s hard to drink. That’s what happened to me. The more I drank the more miserable I was, because I already knew it wasn’t going to work, and I knew that hammer was going to drop. If I could do the things I did while I was drinking, then there was no limit to what I could do without it. This is my third time at the Hope Center.