Mission Statement
The mission of the Community Hope Project is to create conditions that foster peace, justice, health, connection, opportunity, hope, and human flourishing.
Who we are
The Community Hope Project (CHP) was established in 2010. It is an entirely volunteer, non-profit organization that partners with communities to foster justice, equality, opportunity and well being through human connection, creativity and empowerment. It is predicated on the notion that all people have the right to earn a decent living, educate their children, be healthy, and control the affairs of their lives. It is based on the further belief that efforts towards greater equality, education & opportunity around the world create positive effects for us all, in the form of increased social capital, reduced conflict and improved public health.
By no means is our organization a "saving grace" but rather, a cadre of compassionate individuals who want to provide "start up" resources to hopeful communities that want to educate their children, be healthy, and control the affairs of their lives.
By no means is our organization a "saving grace" but rather, a cadre of compassionate individuals who want to provide "start up" resources to hopeful communities that want to educate their children, be healthy, and control the affairs of their lives.
Goals
The aim of the Community Hope Project is to empower communities in developing countries, partially by working with individuals to create educational, training, and microfinance opportunities, but more importantly by helping them to link together as a community, for example, to see themselves as working collectively towards shared goals: living with dignity, respect, health, and compassion. This involves altering norms: going from “survival mode,” a natural human response to extreme conditions of conflict and poverty, to planning and goal-setting. We recognize that the legacies of post-colonialism lives on in many impoverished nations. Thus, rather than continuing with a charity model of development, in which people are primarily driven by a sense of moral/religious obligation or guilt we want people to recognize that it is in their own best interest to decrease inequality, create educational & economic opportunities, and foster healthy communities.
The work of the Community Hope Project (CHP) is both local and international; we believe that efforts to promote health, hope, peace, justice and opportunity across the world have to take place in multiple locations. They must tap into the energy, experience, and diverse resources of people from all over the world.
- CHP fosters connections between kids, adults, and elders in the U.S. with counterparts in other parts of the world. These relationships, which foster perspective, cross-cultural understanding, empathy, and global awareness (among youth in particular), have numerous positive individual and societal “downstream” effects. Our first major partnership has been with the residents of Hill Cut, a small urban village in Sierra Leone. The whole project stemmed from a pen pal relationship between two sets of girls a half a world apart. It has grown into a wonderful, sustaining friendship and collaboration that has transformed a whole community, and changed us all.
- CHP partners with communities to build physical infrastructure. We bring start-up resources (donations, microloans, educational scholarships), the energy and enthusiasm of international volunteers, and combine them with the sweat equity, expertise, strategies, and materials of local community members.
- CHP invests and commits long term to the development and dignity of whole communities and their individual members. We build and nourish relationships, scaffold and support local social entrepreneurs, and create economic and educational opportunities that are socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable. In this way, we help foster local community cohesion, empowerment, and innovation. At the same time, we ourselves, and the local youth with whom we work, gain knowledge & wisdom, experience delight, and feel a deep, gratifying sense of being a part of something grand and transformative.
The work of the Community Hope Project (CHP) is both local and international; we believe that efforts to promote health, hope, peace, justice and opportunity across the world have to take place in multiple locations. They must tap into the energy, experience, and diverse resources of people from all over the world.
Our first connection: CHP Hill Cut
The Hill Cut community members came together in the summer of 2011 and discussed their collective needs, strengths, and hopes. This is a hardworking, resilient, and talented group of individuals and families. Still, a mere ten years out from a brutal civil war, and in the continued grip of poverty, community members need hope, justice, as well as financial, social, and emotional support. They need opportunities to earn a decent wage in order to be able to support their children and live with dignity.
Over the past year, we have worked together to establish a local school with elementary education and adult literacy classes (September, 2011). Inspired and heartened by these initial efforts, community members formed the Hill Cut Community Hope Project, an officially registered community-based organization (CBO) (November, 2011). Members include local men and women, and they have elected an Executive Board of esteemed elders as their final decision-making body.
In the Spring of 2012, a group of women from the literacy class came together to form the Hill Cut Community Women’s Organization. The women have committed to work together to establish a microloan program, create scholarships for local youth, and improve the health, infrastructure, and wellbeing of the entire community. In anticipation of the arrival of a small CHP team (August, 2012), the two organizations have come together and committed to working together on shared goals of sustainable community development.
Over the past year, we have worked together to establish a local school with elementary education and adult literacy classes (September, 2011). Inspired and heartened by these initial efforts, community members formed the Hill Cut Community Hope Project, an officially registered community-based organization (CBO) (November, 2011). Members include local men and women, and they have elected an Executive Board of esteemed elders as their final decision-making body.
In the Spring of 2012, a group of women from the literacy class came together to form the Hill Cut Community Women’s Organization. The women have committed to work together to establish a microloan program, create scholarships for local youth, and improve the health, infrastructure, and wellbeing of the entire community. In anticipation of the arrival of a small CHP team (August, 2012), the two organizations have come together and committed to working together on shared goals of sustainable community development.
