Hope Advocates was formed in March 2016. We wanted a way to give back to the community but as parents we also knew we had a responsibility to teach our children social responsibility. The plan was to find ways to get into the community with our children and volunteer with them side by side and hopefully that will start a conversation with our kids on the way home.
We quickly found out it was not as simple as we thought. Most charities have an age limit for kids and see them as a liability. We realized that this is what would make Hope Advocates unique. We understand that kids are very impressionable and you only get a limited amount of time during these years to make an impression. We wanted to create an environment were families could volunteer and feel welcomed. We have proven ourselves with local charities that children are an asset and we have now started to create our own volunteer opportunities involving kids.
Unlike other charities we realized that we did not fit into any specific criteria. Most charities are driven by one singular cause and in a way we are as well through volunteering. But another way Hope Advocates is unique is we decided we would be very dynamic in our volunteering. We want to experience many aspects of the community and be able to be called on for almost any job.
Hope Advocates fulfilled one of our goals in May of 2017 by becoming a 501(c)(3) organization. We new the only way to reach our goals and impact more lives was to achieve this goal.