ROCK VALLEY, IA – Hope Haven International is a Christian faith-based organization (FBO) committed to unleashing the potential in children and adults who are mentally or physically challenged.

Founded in 1959, the first Hope Haven community opened in 1964 with three staff members serving 11 children in a caring, Christian environment.

Today, Hope Haven provides services in 15 communities throughout the Midwestern United States, including more than 40 community living services.

“As followers of Christ, we unleash the potential in people through work and life skills so that they may enjoy a productive life in their community.”

Community Living service programs are designed to meet each individual’s current conditions and to increase their independence and skillsets. Treatment plans and goals are based on each person’s own personal objectives. Participants learn how to manage everyday activities and how to interact socially. They learn job skills and enter into the workplace through multiple HH placement programs.

Recovery Mentors, also known as Peer Support, come alongside program participants who are coping with mental illness. The mentors have “been there, done that,” and have been living well in their own recovery.

In the Medicaid-funded program, the mentors teach coping skills, other needed life skills, and bring their assigned partners into a network that will become an ongoing support group.

My Day, also known as Day Habilitation, is “designed to enable an individual to enrich his or her life and enjoy a full range of community engagement by providing opportunities for developing, enhancing, and maintaining competency in personal, social, and community activities.”

The intent is to help individuals discover and reach their full potential by engaging them in meaningful activities that offer a sense of purpose and, therefore, increased self-esteem. The program includes the development of physical and emotional health, communication skills, cognitive function, responsibility, self-direction, and social interaction.

The Religious Services component not only focuses on encouraging faith in Christ but also includes collaboration with local churches to participate in meeting the needs of disabled persons in their community. Even more so, and something that churches can often miss, Hope Haven encourages those churches to consider the spiritual gifts and talents of the disabled so that they can share those God-given gifts to benefit the body of believers.

We would be remiss if we did not mention Hope Haven’s international wheelchair ministry. Over the past 26 years, Hope Haven has provided more than 129,000 new, rebuilt, and repaired wheelchairs for children in 109 countries.

Hope Haven is proof positive that true compassion compels those who have into action.

To read more news on Children Around the World on Missions Box, go here.