Hope Restorations is a nonprofit social enterprise founded in 2015 with a mission to provide paid employment, training, and support to adults recovering from addiction or incarceration. It does this by acquiring deteriorating houses in declining neighborhoods, restoring them to modern energy-efficiency and safety standards, thus creating affordable housing and home ownership opportunities for lower income families.

In the process of doing this work, the organization also helps reverse the declining property values in targeted neighborhoods. The tagline on its logo says a lot, “Restoring Hope; One life, one house, one neighborhood at a time.”

The organization has agreed to acquire a new property — the Flynn Home. Many people in Kinston recognize the Mitchell Street property as the Flynn Home, a nonprofit ministry providing housing for men recovering from alcohol and substance abuse. For many years, this house, along with its volunteer board of directors, has provided a safe haven and helped many men get a fresh start on life.

Annette Lapas, president of The Flynn Home’s board of directors said, “The cost of repairing and maintaining this historic house has continued to rise year after year, and the way Hope Restorations uses construction work to help men start their life over seems like the perfect way to manage this expense.”

“We’re excited about carrying on the rich tradition of this house,” says Hope Restorations’ executive pastor, Chris Jenkins, “It’s a tradition of selflessly helping men transition back into healthy, happy lives.”

Jenkins said the house will allow them to implement improvements to their program.

“We will incorporate a program using phases,” he said. “The early phases will be highly structured and supervised, with subsequent phases progressing toward more independent living,”

All Hope Restorations participants are required to continue looking for better paying, permanent employment or to be engaged in a formal educational program.

Jenkins said, “Having our early-phase participants in one residential setting will greatly enhance our partnership with Lenoir Community College, since we’ll be able to offer GED and career readiness courses on site.”

Hope Restorations offers “Tours with the Executive Pastor” most Tuesday mornings, giving those interested an opportunity to hear the whole story of how this began while seeing some of their work firsthand. Call their office to reserve your spot on their next tour. You can also watch video testimonials of some of the Hope Restorations employees and board members by visiting their website at http://www.hoperestorationsnc.org.

For more information on Hope Restorations or how you can support this community effort, call Hernika Cannon at 252-560-7507 ext. 101, or visit its website at hoperestoratiosnc.org.