The Family Support Center
Wednesdays 9am-12:30pm
Classes and Support Groups offered on:
- Birth preparation
- Parenting skills
- Life skills
- Single parenting
- Abuse and trauma recovery
- Health and first aid
- Healthy relationships
- U.S. Citizenship Exam Preparation
- Driver's Permit Preparation
-Childcare provided during most activities
-Transportation as needed
-Volunteer opportunities
Women's Health Cottage
By appointment
-Free pregnancy tests
-Free pregnancy option information
-Free prenatal care
-Labor and support doulas
-Homebirth Midwifery
-Breastfeeding support
-Childbirth classes
-Free literature on pregnancy, birth, and newborn care
Bear-ly Used Boutique
Wednesdays 10am-12:30pm
-New and recycled adult and kids' clothing
-Childrens' items and furnishings
-Toys
-Diapers
-Food
-Health supplies
-Books/Videos
-House goods
All items are free
Families Intact
For who? Any struggling parent.
Any Mom or Dad who needs support to keep their family intact. Whether you are striving to regain custody of your children or facing overwhelming circumstances like divorce, homelessness, poverty, abuse, drug or alcohol dependency or immigration difficulties...we can help.After an initial interview and a two week introductory phase, the voluntary contractual agreement lasts six months.Reapplication can extend the contract past the initial six months...as long as needed. Some services can be long-term based on continued involvement, and due to the benevolent and longstanding nature of the agencies involved.
What is offered? Free community-based support.
We will help you set and achieve your goals that improve your chances of success through mentoring, classes, and materials that speak to obstacles today's families face. Hope House is also willing to vouch for the parent's progress in court, to DHHS and to others as needed.
Hope for the Holidays
Hope House enables parents to shop for toys, gifts, and holiday items that assist low income families in being able to celebrate various holidays.
Care Services
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Host Homes
“I was a stranger and you took me in”
Matthew 25:35
Host Homes Meet Needs!
- Poverty had discouraged a young single mom with a toddler son. A middle-aged single woman shared her home with them, teaching the young mom various life skills, modeling single womanhood, and becoming a surrogate grandma during the months they were together and beyond.
- Abortion was what a young pregnant single was considering, but wanted a no-pressure setting in which to think over her options. A lively family of five provided her first look at a healthy family, as they opened their home to her. She chose life for her daughter, expressing gratefulness years later for how their home had shown her God’s love.
- Abused by her husband and abandoned in a culture foreign to her, a fearful mother and her baby girl were befriended by some single women who opened their home. As they helped them through immigration difficulties, the woman began to learn to trust again, and to heal from the abuse and fear she had known.
- Incarceration of a woman’s husband was preventing his help, and their second child’s birth was approaching. With no family nearby, there was no one to care for her young son while she was in the hospital. At church she met the large family that would care for him for a week. The shy little boy blossomed from all the attention, and his mother knew God had heard her prayers.
- Mild retardation was preventing a pregnant woman from being given a chance to birth and parent her child. Abortion was what some were encouraging. A couple who had finished raising their own children opened their home to help this woman. After considering adoption, her dream was still to parent her daughter. So they taught her newborn care and helped them get off to a good start.
- Feeling alone in choosing adoption, a pregnant highschooler found support in the home of a caring family where the wife helped her with childbirth classes and labor, and the whole family helped her throughout the adoption process. Then they cheered her on when she left to pursue college goals.
“The stranger who dwells with you shall be as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.”
Leviticus 19:34
What Do Host Homes Provide?
- Host Homes provide warm family-style residential care on a short term basis, enabling a parent and child to successfully come through a time of crisis. Host Homes are part of a network of ordinary families who open their homes to Hope House clients in need.
Who Benefits From Host Homes?
- Parents and their children facing homelessness or abuse
- Single pregnant women in need of support
- Parents needing respite care for their children during a necessary brief absence
- Parents and their children in crisis or overwhelming circumstances
How is a Stay in a Host Home Arranged?
- A parent in need contacts Hope House, and a confidential application process determines a match with a Host Home best suited to their needs. A plan is tailor-made for their stay, in teamwork with area resources, to accomplish goals set by the parents and Hope House.
Where Are Host Homes Located?
- The network of homes has spanned Maine, with a vision to expand beyond. Host Homes have in the past years opened as far north as Waldoboro and Ft. Fairfield, as far south as Portland, and in places like Brunswick, Auburn, Lewiston, Oxford, and Turner.
How, and Why, Become a Host Home?
- “Bring the poor that are cast out to thy house” Isaiah 58:7. Interested households may contact Hope House and apply. Hope House provides initial training for hosts, ongoing guidance, support in teamwork with area resources, and oversight of placements. A caring stable home is a powerful tool God uses to rebuild broken lives. A Host Home family discovers the rewards of getting to see their love change lives. “The Lord your God…executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the stranger by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the stranger…” Deuteronomy 10:17-19
Why With Hope House?
- Hope House has had fifteen years of experience in directly founding and operating shelters for young mothers and their children, and has lent oversight and training to host families over a twenty-five year span. A variety of recovery and parenting tools have been developed as well by Hope House, and widely recommended.
