Since its inception, Hillcrest Ministries has helped over 300 homeless families return to self-sufficiency and become productive citizens. Those families included approximately 1,000 people who have been touched by the hope Hillcrest provides.
The Hillcrest model has proven successful not only in Liberty, Missouri but has also given direction to eleven other programs in ten different cities. At last count, Hillcrest serves as a model for more than 140 units, which house 423 families annually. The follow-up on this program, and those modeled after it, has proven that the vast majority of families leave these programs as independent citizens with the skills and hope they need to contribute to their commitments.
A Common Hillcrest Transitional Housing Resident Family
Kelly, a single mother with three children, grew up in an at-risk, dysfunctional family environment of abuse and neglect in poverty. Not only had she never learned life-skills like parenting, healthy eating, and problem solving, she never had a network of support. Kelly was married at age 17 and was married for five years to a mentally and physically abusive husband who ultimately left her with the children.
Her now ex-husband is required to make child support payments but doesn’t and Kelly had to move from one friend’s apartment to another. After one of these friends sexually molested her oldest girl, Kelly began sleeping with the children in her car. Her ex-husbanded called children’s services on her for neglect and the Division of Family Services referred her to Hillcrest.
After 90 days of life-skills training, tough love accountability, encouragement and full-time employment, Kelly graduated from the Hillcrest program and three years later has maintained a full-time job and kept her children in school. She rented an apartment for the first two years and then purchased her own home.
The Soccer Mom
Kathy was a single mom who had a simple dream – to have a normal life for herself and her seven-year-old son Jake. But past sexual abuse and a life of drugs had closed many doors. Even an attempt at getting a college education had ended in failure, leaving her with no degree and a student loan that would take over thirty years to pay off, even if she had a job. Then she heard about a program searching for families in her situation in Eastern Jackson County that might help her. Kathleen and her son applied and moved into the Hillcrest Transitional Housing program. Though she wished for the best, she really didn’t have hope that her life would significantly change for the better.
First came the job. With help from her Case Manager, Kathy found work at a printing company. Next she needed to learn how to manage that new income, and though it was difficult at first, she became proficient at creating a weekly budget and reconciling her financial transactions. Her son, who had been struggling at school, began to experience academic growth simply from living in a more stable environment. Meanwhile, with help from her budget counselor, Kathy began formulating a debt-repayment plan. Though it would take several years to become completely debt-free, she had a workable plan. For the first time, Kathy had hope that she could achieve a normal life again…but there was one piece missing. In the last week of her stay at Hillcrest, that final piece fell into place – Kathy became a “soccer mom.” Being able to afford putting her son on a youth soccer team was the embodiment of normalcy for Kathy and her cries of joy were heard throughout the office when she came home to celebrate, crying “I’m a soccer mom! I’m a soccer mom!” For this mom and son, a simple dream of soccer punctuated a far greater accomplishment of self-sufficiency that will last far beyond the end of the soccer season.