A new Baxter facility will provide comprehensive recovery programs to help men transition from addiction and incarceration back into the community.
Hope for a Future House Executive Director Chris Henry said the year-long program assists participants with securing employment, obtaining vehicles, and establishing insurance coverage. Henry said the curriculum includes financial literacy training to help men manage their earnings and save for independent housing.
“I want to offer them more than just a program that says good job and gives them a certificate,” Henry said. “I want to help them with a vehicle, insurance, you know as they’re earning their own money I’m teaching them budgeting, putting up all that.”
Henry said the facility currently houses seven men and accepts individuals arriving from Jackson County and Overton County. The program begins with a 30-day blackout period intended to focus participants on their spiritual growth and the house rules before they begin seeking local employment.
“Then after that they get a job, we put them out in the community so that gets them used to being a man again,” Henry said. “But at the same time, at the end of the job day, they come back and, boom, we pour into them Christ.”
Henry said the organization has established partnerships with local workplaces to help men overcome the stigma of having a criminal record. These employers often seek out program participants because the house maintains a high level of accountability for every worker.
“We’re partnering up with so many people that they’re looking to hire a guy,” Henry said. “They’re saying ‘y’all hold them to more accountability than we do’ so we’re partnering with them on work and then our community and just getting them around other believers.”
Henry said his motivation for opening the home stems from his own experience serving 18 years in prison and struggling with repeated cycles of recidivism. He said he spent 14 years trying to find his own way before realizing he needed to turn his life over to his faith.
“This is the county that I tore up and now I’m just wanting to help un-tear it up,” Henry said. “I’m just wanting to offer these men the same thing that I found once I found out that I couldn’t do it myself and I turned it over to Christ, man, he’s just helped me find the way and I want to show these men the way.”
Henry said he is scheduled to meet with a judge soon to discuss getting the Hope for a Future House added to the official Putnam County referral list.