Seeds of Hope, Inc. is a transitional housing facility for women recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Seeds of Hope was founded September 20, 1999 with the goal of providing a structured, loving environment to enable its residents to successfully work through an individualized program of recovery and to be able to begin a new way of life - free from addiction. Seeds of Hope is one of only a few facilities of its kind in Central Indiana that provides a home environment with 24-hour supervision to women who have no insurance or financial ability to rehabilitate themselves. Unlike many other treatment and recovery facilities in our state that require insurance or up-front payment of fees, we open our doors to any woman who comes to us for help with her addiction – regardless of her ability to pay.
In the fall of 2000, Seeds of Hope became an official 501(c)3 organization and in the summer of 2001, a Board of Directors was convened, which continues to guide the organization today. By the middle of 2003, we had served 100 women seeking help with their addictions.
When we first opened our doors, ours was a 3-month program. In 2004, however, after thorough evaluation of success vs. relapse statistics, we lengthened our program to 6-months. We feel that it takes at least this much time for our residents to “unlearn” their old addictive lifestyle, begin to heal (physically, emotionally, and spiritually), and start to “learn” a new way of living – not dependent on drugs or alcohol.
To help support our operating costs, as well as to provide job skills training for our residents, “The Hope Chest” (a thrift store run by Seeds of Hope volunteers) was opened in August, 2005. Gently-used donations from generous donors are collected and sold for discount prices. Through this establishment, we have been able to give back to our local community, while helping to meet the Seeds of Hope program costs.
By early 2006, we had served 200 women. That number grew to 300 by the end of 2008.
In September, 2009, Seeds of Hope celebrated ten years of striving to help women better their lives – and those of their children and families. Being “firmly rooted” as an organization, we also qualified for a Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis grant to allow us to purchase the building we had been renting and to upgrade the 50-year old building. The expansion project was completed in July, 2011, increasing our capacity from 10 women to 17 women.
In 2012, we met the milestone of having served and offered a second chance to more than 400 women. More importantly, the 70% increase in capacity with the expansion helped us leave fewer women on the waiting list to join our program, so that we could more readily offer hope to those in need of recovery.
2013 marked a new “first” for Seeds of Hope. Although we have had several multiple-resident graduations in the past, July 25th was the first time we had 6 ladies graduate at once!! We were so excited and completely humbled to congratulate Michelle, Kaylan, Kindra, Terri, Nikki and Jessica on this wonderful achievement.
Seeds of Hope: Where a life of addiction ends, and a life of hope begins.