Tweet This: Hope Center in Mayfield, Kentucky marks three decades of serving women, men and families with practical support, medical services and lasting relationships.
Three decades of commitment, service, and hope are being celebrated in a pregnancy center in Mayfield, Ky.
Hope for Life Pregnancy Resource Center opened its doors in 1996 after 50 individuals were determined to help women with unexpected pregnancies in their region.
Today the mission is known as the Hope Center after a name change in 2010.
Rebekah Flowers is the Executive Director and said this milestone is a testament to the grit and courage it takes to start a pregnancy center.
Flowers said “50 fearless folks” gathered together on Feb. 20, 1996. They met the executive director from another center in Kentucky, Karin Thomas, the Executive Director of Hope Unlimited in Paducah.
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“They had seen a substantial number of Mayfield and Graves County teens seeking help at (the Paducah) location, and they were willing to help get a center started in our area,” Flowers said. “That initial meeting resulted in a steering committee which began building the foundation for a local pregnancy care center.”
The Hope Center’s first director, Beverly Steele, told Flowers that a young woman with very real needs was the motivation to get the center opened quickly. The first day in their new office was Sept. 16, 1996, less than seven months after the meeting about the concept.
“The board, team of volunteers, and the new executive director got to work on the first budget of $2,000 a month,” Flowers said Steele told her. “By the end of 1996, 32 volunteers had been trained, and they had provided services to 10 clients.”
Flowers said 30,000 client interactions have taken place since that first day, seeing clients ranging from 11 years old to 45.
“From a small office to a past mortuary on Water Street, to a renovated home on Paris Road, and now to our fantastic 6,500 sq. ft. professional building on East Broadway, our clients have always been our driving force and motivation,” Flowers said.
Courtesy of the Hope Center
Seven staff members serve clients currently, including full-time and part-time Registered Nurses. The center offers free medical services including medical-grade pregnancy tests, diagnostic testing for five sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and limited ultrasound.
The center incorporates an “earn while you learn” program, a men’s program, after abortion support, and a sexual risk avoidance education program in local schools.
The center also has a student-led program known as Hope Student Ambassadors.
“Hope Student Ambassadors is a leadership program comprised of 10-12 selected students ages 14-19 that are invested in helping out in their communities and empowering their peers to make healthy life choices in relationships and life,” Flowers said. “Their mission is to empower students to make an impact in their school and communities with a message of compassion, value, and healthy life choices by promoting healthy relationships.”
After 30 years, Flowers said, “We are still getting started” in terms of developing relationships with clients and providing opportunities of support.
“We are also working to increase our Hispanic clients as well as reaching more dads through our men's mentorship program, she said.
“As we continue to grow, it is our prayer that we will always give God all the Glory for what he is doing with His ministry and that we would follow his calling that He has placed on each of the staff's lives as they serve here,” Flowers told Pregnancy Help News.
With a well-established foundation, Hope Center’s efforts will continue to serve women and families.
“In this next chapter we aspire to reach more clients and leave a deeper impact in their lives,” Flowers said, “through continued parenting classes and medical services, group Bible classes, CPR classes, and lactation consulting.”
The various services offered at the Hope Center bring clients into the building. But the goal is for these men, women, and children to leave with far more than diapers and an ultrasound photo.
“We are here to listen, to help, and walk with them no matter what brings them through our doors,” Flowers said. “We have a sign that has been hanging in our front office for the past few years, and we live by it. ‘When you are here, you are family.’”
Tweet This: Clients come for the resources and stay for the relationships
“Our clients come for the resources and stay for the relationships that we intentionally build with them,” she said. “It is our prayer that when they come for help, they will find it but also walk away with hope.”
