Youth Made Hope Products Help Hope for Healing.Org

Often I am asked what kids do when they come to us to volunteer or to serve court-ordered community service. The answer is - a lot!

At Hope for Healing.Org we are always asking for one-day mentors to help. Special skills are not required. We just ask that you have a heart for kids and a willingness to listen. This makes all the difference! When possible, new volunteers (and community service workers) are placed with a more experienced volunteer called a Lead Volunteer or with an adult mentor.

Kids are assigned to volunteers and mentors individually based on program needs and capabilities of the teen. For large tasks that need several hands (like sorting a mountainous pile of clothing) teens may be assigned in a group under one or two Lead Volunteers or mentors.

We don't want to just "make them work". Our goal is to teach them skills that will lead to new behavior, increased job skills or both. While kids sort, fold and hang clothing our mentors talk with them. While we do keep things low key we do enforce rules on behavior and respectful attire. Sometimes, communication with adults is the biggest skill that needs to be learned. We work on this as we work on other skills such as merchandising or creating a display.

When the kids are ready we work with them on creating Hope Products.

Hope Products are items created by Hope Youth to benefit the general fund of Hope for Healing.Org. Some of these items, such as our popular notecards, are now offered on eBay. Other items are offered for sale in our thrift shop or put to use in the office.
All products are recycled from items donated to our thrift shop. The variety is endless. Popular items among the kids include refinishing furniture, picture frames or wall decorations. Other items have included recreating end tables and stools. Other items included denim purses and hand woven placemats.

As the kids learn about recycling they also learn the basics of what goes into a retail operation. Creating posters for outreach events helps teach about marketing and advertising - all powerful skills which help kids build a better future.

But is the program successful?

This year, five teens qualified for the US President's Volunteer Service Award. Two teens were former juvenile offenders, two Lead Volunteers placed in the top 11 of their graduating high school class and the fifth teen is visually challenged. (Another teenager missed qualifying by only 4 hours.)

The minimum time requirement varies with the age of the participant. (See the President's Volunteer Service Award Website for more information. ) Each qualifying teenager mentioned above volunteered a minimum of 100 hours each and one student volunteered over 150 hours.

But the real proof of success is in the lives of the participants themselves. All of the kids mentioned above have either found jobs or are successful students in their respective schools.

And, these teens are still volunteering with us. They want to pass on what they have learned from us in hopes of inspiring other teens to achieve.

Do you have a few hours of time on a Saturday? Come join us and see the change in the kids we work with for yourself. You - and they- will be glad you came.


Read here for instructions on how we repainted this stool.