People space

As I stood in the middle of a crowd of people—stood because I literally could not move in either direction—I realized we had a problem. Hope House is a house, which is part of the attraction for our clients and staff, but which can also hinder the very work we are trying to do. On this Friday, as on so many other days in the last year, we were full to capacity, and it was the worst traffic situation I had ever seen there. As I found myself yelling to be heard above the noise of 35 individuals, I knew we had to do something about it.

But what? We have been working for the last year and a half on trying to get funding for a bigger building, but that was going nowhere. All the extra funding we could find needed to be spent on our clients and we were so busy I could barely keep up with the day to day organizational issues. I was going to need to find some alternative solution that would work in the present space.

So that night, I tossed and turned until 2 am trying to come up with a solution. We have been moving racks around at Hope House over the last couple of months, trying to clear space for people to shop, trying to be more efficient in the use of our space—what else could we do? At 2 am, I turned it over to God—I told Him I needed sleep and to let me know what he has in mind the next day.

Sure enough, the next morning I woke up to the realization that we needed the entire front room to be our waiting area—not just half of it. It meant losing a bright and sunny room for our baby/toddler are, and squeezing the women and children’s area, but we needed more people space, not more stuff space. So the next day, Rory (my husband) and I went in to Hope House and spent our Sunday afternoon tearing up the front room and then putting it back together as a large waiting area. We now have a bright and sunny waiting room, with a corner for the kids to play, a front desk moved to a more efficient place and lots more chairs and standing room (because we still get so many people at once that they are standing).

The first day we opened with our new arrangement, I waited until about a half hour after we filled up, and then went out and asked the front desk person how it was going. “Listen”, he said, cocking his head towards the main room, “they’re talking to each other.” He was right—not only were they talking to each other, but grown men were playing peek-a-boo with toddlers on the floor, one mom was reading to a group of children and many quiet conversations were happening all around me.

This is called “community”, and it is one of the reasons why Hope House works in a house. Our waiting area now felt like a big living room full of friends and family, sharing, laughing, talking and playing.

Come join our community—you may find us playing Charades in the living room. 