Hope House Foundation

The closing words of the Hope House Foundation mission read as follows: “Choice. Belonging. Home. At Hope House, these are not just abstract concepts. Through our support of people with disabilities, our community participation, and our advocacy, we make these ideas a reality, each and every day.”

That said, a mission statement is only as good as its actualization, and Hope House has lived that mission since its inception in the mid-1980s, when it became one of the first in the country to eschew the concept of group homes, closing all of them by the early 1990s and ensuring that services would be provided in affordable, inclusive settings.
Hope House Foundation’s core program is the provision of comprehensive supports for 128 men and women with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (referred to in this document as “ID”) in their own homes – affordable apartments available for lease to them and to the community at large through our supporting organization (the legal term), The Residential Corporation. As of this writing, 88 persons with ID are served in Norfolk; 23 in Chesapeake; and 17 in Virginia Beach. In addition to ID, those supported endure a higher rate of comorbidity than the population at large.

While the core mission of inclusion has remained constant, its actualization has evolved into a model of innovation. Today, with ten properties owned by The Residential Corporation and offered to approximately 250 members of the community at large at well below the HUD-determined fair-market rent, the men and women supported by Hope House live and thrive in an inclusive environment – rather than the congregate settings that are still the norm in Virginia.

The Hope House model, lauded and emulated throughout the country, has recently been cited by the “National Historical Recognition Project: 2000 – 2020”, which praised Hope House Foundation’s leadership for contributions to the transformation of the disability field over the past 20 years.

At Hope House Foundation, all of our strategies are grounded in our determination to be “of" rather than simply “within" the communities in which we provide services and, through our affiliate organization, affordable housing. That commitment has it roots our radical decision – over 30 years ago – to close our group homes and transition people with disabilities into their own homes.

In closing our group homes, we knew that we were undertaking a mammoth challenge that would require the development of strategies that we knew would be extremely challenging:

a) massive fundraising to compensate for the state's inadequate funding for support services (see item "c" below);

b) partnerships with the business, government and funding communities to secure affordable housing opportunities through our affiliate, the Residential Corporation;

c) strong advocacy to reform the Commonwealth's draconian funding model. While most states long-ago implemented funding models for community-based living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Virginia ranks a dismal 49th, according to a 2014 United Cerebral Palsy report. That translates into a hall of shame featuring an estimated 8,500 on waiting lists for community-based services; over 600 languishing in state-run institutions; and 1,700 living in state-run hospital settings.

There are several levels of organizational capacity that Hope House Foundation has vigorously pursued:

1. Financial Capacity: At Hope House, we define “financial capacity" as the financial limit of an organization's ability to absorb losses with its own funds or borrowed funds without disruption. One way to discuss this is to examine our “defensive interval ratio." At the end of fiscal year 2016, for example, our defensive interval ratio indicated that we could operate for approximately five months if no additional funds were received. Since the typical goal to which an agency should aspire is three-to-six months, it can be said that Hope House is well within the desired range. This is the result of our vigorous pursuit of fundraising activities, through corporate, foundation, individual and government entities.

2. Advocacy for changes in the Commonwealth's inadequate funding for community-based services: The current funding model in Virginia actually incentivizes congregate settings, in both state-run institutions and group homes. Our advocacy – both organizationally and in our leadership role with the ARC of Virginia – has been instrumental to a determination by the U.S. Department of Justice that the Commonwealth's funding model is in violation of both the ADA and the Supreme Court's 1999 Olmstead decision. Not only has this resulted in a historic 2012 settlement that will ultimately end the institutionalization of people with disabilities, but the Commonwealth's attorneys routinely seek Hope House's counsel as the settlement moves forward. Specifically, the settlement between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the U.S. Department of Justice mandates that the state-run institutions pursue a phased closure that should be complete within ten years.

3. Leadership Capacity: Hope House Foundation is enormously invested in its leadership capacity, at the board, administrative staff and service staff levels. According to Executive Director Lynne Seagle, who has been a respected leader at Hope House for decades, effective leadership requires the following:

• The facilitation of constant, high-level communication with and among the staff – not only regarding the mission itself, but regarding each person's role in bringing those words to life with a sense of empowerment that their decisions will be supported.
• Ongoing communication with all stakeholders and collaborators (funders, government, citizens, non-profit and for-profit partners), making clear the alignment between our mission and the health of the area's communities.
• The ability to galvanize stakeholders in the pursuit of partnership-driven solutions to the unique opportunities and challenges facing Hope House.
• Clear and effective communication with those who may be willing to act as ambassadors of the Hope House mission by joining the fight for improved community-based funding and full inclusion for people with disabilities.

Below are just a few of the outcomes of our strategic approach, expressed, for consistency, in terms of the indicators in the above question:

*Outcome: Improved Social Responsibility and Leadership
Outcome Indicator A: % who participated in general advocacy activities
Achieved outcome: 62 or 52%

Outcome Indicator B: % who participated in government meetings or rallies
Achieved outcome: 14 or 12%

*Outcome: Improved Social and Emotional Health
Outcome Indicator A: % who developed quality, healthy relationships with peers or caring adults not supported by Hope House
Achieved outcome: 62 or 53%

Outcome Indicator B: % who developed quality, healthy relationships with peers or other adults supported by Hope House, regardless of their service location
Achieved outcome: 95 or 80%

Outcome Indicator C: % who developed quality, healthy relationships with more than one friend regardless of service location
Achieved outcome: 74 or 62%

*Outcome: Increased access to and participation in community resources and supports
Outcome Indicator A: % who participated in volunteer activities based on staff referrals
Achieved outcome: 34 or 29%

Outcome Indicator B: % who have a community membership (gym, theater, etc.) based on staff referrals
Achieved outcome: 79 or 66%

Outcome Indicator C: % who participated in any sort of community resource (memberships, hobbies, classes, etc.) either on their own or through a staff referral Achieved outcome: 92 or 77%

Outcome Indicator D: % who participated in any sort of community resource (memberships, hobbies, classes, etc.) on their own – without staff referral
Achieved outcome: 15 (of the 92 who participated in any activity) or 16%

2. Housing Affordability:
Not only do we provide affordable housing for approximately 130 men and women with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, but we also provide affordable housing for approximately 250 men and women from the community at large in search of affordable housing. All of our units -- secured through our affiliate organization (the Residential Corporation) -- are well below the HUD-determined Fair Market Rate for the Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Newport News metro.

3. Community Support:
One need only review the words of the mayors of the communities in which we operate to gauge the level of community support:

Jerrauld G. Jones, House of Delegates, District 89: "Not only was Hope House the first organization in Virginia to commit to serving people with disabilities exclusively within their own homes, but they have provided leadership locally and nationally to assist others to committing to the concept of inclusivity...."

Stephen Edward Heretick, House of Delegates, District 79: "It is important...to understand that this commitment to community living and community participation for people with disabilities benefits all...."