I would like to take a moment of your time to express the importance of our “Vision 2007”      campaign.  I founded Hope for Tomorrow, Inc., in October 1999, after witnessing dozens of men and women return to the deep and dark depths of despair because long-term, structured, supportive, and sober residential services were not available in Kane County or the surrounding areas.  Individuals trapped in the degenerative cyclical cycle of addictive disorders had three choices (at best).  One, if this option even remained, and most often it did not, they could return home to their family to live  under their roof.  This placed the “recovering” person back in the destructive elements (e.g. enabling families, high crime and gang environments, substance dependent family members …) to exacerbate the problem—which ultimately led to the continuation of more addictive thoughts and behaviors.  The second option was to move into an apartment with someone they just met in treatment or at a twelve step program.  Often, the end result of this action was that both roommates relapsed—due to insufficient or non-existent structure, a lack of concrete clinical guidance, and minimal—if any—accountability.  The third option was that the recovering individual secure their own apartment and go about their recovery alone, with support of the recovering community—if they continued to attend support groups.  A BIG IF. 

Hope for Tomorrow, Inc. was conceptualized and founded to fill a desperate and vital void in the continuum of care by providing a long term, highly structured, professionally guided transition from short-term, clinically structured treatment so that recovering individuals could develop operative life skills that produce a structured, recovery-based lifestyle that  centers around accountability, personal and fiscal responsibility,  solid values and character, and self-sufficiency. 

Since its inception, in October 1999, Hope for Tomorrow has restored hope to so many people—it has restored broken and shattered lives, strengthened families, and has made a tremendous impact on reducing homelessness, eliminating substance-seeking criminal behavior, reducing domestic violence and child neglect/abandonment, and reducing unemployment.  Hope for Tomorrow is a solid solution—with proven and measurable outcomes—to many of the ills that plague our society.  Decades of evidence-based empirical research clearly demonstrate the importance of a long-term, structured residential environment that emphasizes accountability—in conjunction with professionally certified substance abuse and mental health counseling—as a means of reducing recidivism among chronic substance abusing individuals.  

Vision 2007 meets several of the “top ranking priorities” in Kane County’s 2005-2009 Consolidated Plan.  First, as stated above, it provides safe, structured, sober, affordable permanent supportive housing to chronically and episodically homeless individuals suffering from substance abuse and co-morbid disorders (affordable permanent supportive housing, substance abuse, and mental health services are high ranking priorities in all cities, all across America).  Second, it drastically reduces and/or eliminates substance-seeking criminal behaviors.  Crime affects everyone—from any town and city.  Third, it transforms unemployable, substance dependent individuals into productive,    accountable, responsible, taxpaying, law-abiding citizens; society, as a whole, benefits from that.  Fourth, and possibly the most important, it serves as a beacon of hope to individuals trapped in the depths of their addictive disorder; it breaks the dysfunctional barriers of addiction and restores families; it returns sober and productive parents to their  children and reduces child abuse, neglect, or abandonment caused from alcoholic and/or drug addicted parents (substance abuse is the major contributing factor in 85% of all child abuse or domestic violence cases).  Finally, and equally important as all the other points, it brings people back into a grace-filled, loving relationship with a God of their understanding. 

Vision 2007 is far more than a vision for Hope for Tomorrow, Inc.; it’s a vision that will transform the community, and a vision that reaches into eternity.  By collaborating with one another, we can make “Vision 2007” a reality.