People who have a criminal history, even a minimal one, often want to turn their lives around—-even as society has put obstacles in their way. Can’t get a job, can’t get a lease, can’t get a loan, can’t get a scholarship. Gwendolyn Hooker offers HOPE, Helping Other People Exceed through Navigation. HOPE has built tiny homes to be leased to this population, but that’s not all HOPE does. HOPE programs address substance abuse disorder, bullying, gun violence, social justice and more. Hooker talks about her own journey to HOPE.
“I’ve had some things happen in my lifetime that I refuse to let dictate where my life was going to go,” Hooker says. “I had ideals of being something more than what my past dictated. I just refused to give up. I refused to accept what society said my trajectory of what my life was going to be. So I continued to beat the odds and continued to strive for something that I believed I deserved and was worthy of, regardless of the mistakes I had made in the past, regardless of my addiction and all those kinds of things.”
Hooker is celebrating the 11th year of HOPE, a grassroots Navigation Consulting Agency that she founded in June of 2015. The organization is dedicated to providing hands-on, wraparound navigation services and support to individuals with substance use disorder, and/or a criminal background history, and are subsequently experiencing discrimination or homelessness. HOPE also leads a program to decrease gun violence and JABS, or Justice Against Bullying @School.
“It is so important to me that people realize—and I’m talking about the people who have criminal convictions and people who have a history of substance use disorder—to know that that isn’t just a snippet in time,” Hooker says. “Those times can be turned around whenever people decide that they want to do it. I am not different from many of the people who experience homelessness, being turned down for jobs, not being allowed to live in certain places because of convictions that they have had. They can beat those odds if they want to and if they know the resources that are available to them. HOPE leads the charge in that regard.”
HOPE is located inside the Vine Neighborhood Association, 806 S. Westnedge, Kalamazoo, and the Kalamazoo Defenders Office, inside the Comerica Building-151 S. Rose Street, Suite #3. They can be reached at officeofhopeinfo@gmail.com or call 269-775-1221.
