Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to Life Reviewed, a podcast by Hope House Colorado, where we invite you into conversation with teenage moms and the people who champion them. These stories of struggle, overcoming and perspective shifts will challenge you to review life as you've known it. One story, one person, one conversation at a time.
Hi, listeners. My name is Jenny Gonzalez and I'm the director of Pro Programs here at Hope House. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Life Reviewed. I oversee the staff and programs here for the teen moms that we serve.
I'm here today with Lisa and we'll be sharing more about our new Early Learning Center. Hi, Lisa, thanks so much for doing the podcast with me today.
Can you introduce yourself to the listeners?
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Hey, Jenny. Thanks. Yeah. My name is Lisa KP and I am the Director of Early Childhood Education at Hope House Colorado.
So I oversee our early learning and school age program and parenting program that runs out of our resource center. And then I also have the privilege and honor of serving as the director of our new Early Learning center that opened last October.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Yes. So, Lisa, before we go in and talk about our Early Learning center, because we're going to talk about some of our favorite memories and kind of go back to construction and some of our favorite memories of opening and kind of some of our greatest hopes moving forward, maybe you could tell listeners a little bit more about your background prior to coming to Hope House, and then I'll share a little bit more about myself as well.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Sure.
So I'm a native in Colorado. I have lived here my whole life. I love it here and can't really imagine living anywhere else unless I could afford a house on the island of Hilton Head, S.C. it is beautiful there. That'd be my next place. But I love Colorado. I grew up in the Broomfield Westminster area with my parents and my two brothers.
Love everything outdoors.
So I just, I've always had a desire to serve others. I've always had a love for children and families. Did a lot of babysitting as I was growing up.
Some of my first jobs, I worked some retail, but just really always felt called to serve children and families in my career. And so I decided to pursue a career in psychology and I went to CU Denver, where I graduated with that degree in psychology and with an emphasis in early Childhood development.
And I've done a lot of work before coming to Hope House. Hope House is by far the best place I've ever worked and I love it here. But some of my background was serving children in preschool in toddler programs, writing and creating curriculum.
I'VE worked with families who've experienced domestic violence and done some counseling, mental health counseling for adolescent, adolescent girls.
But yeah, I just found Hope House and this was. This is home for me.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Lisa, your background is so diverse and you bring such amazing skill sets, not only working with our moms, but your depth of knowledge and skills and working with our kids. And now leading, continuing to lead staff through that. And we're. And working with lots of kids that we'll talk about in just a little bit.
So a little bit more about me.
I am a native New Mexican, so very close to Colorado. Grew up in a small little town in New Mexico. It was a great little town where really everyone knew everyone, spent a lot of time playing outside, which isn't always the case for everyone these days.
And I was a teen mom myself, so I had my son when I was 16 years old. I was a junior in high school and still remember graduating when my son was one and just thinking, oh my gosh, what am I going to do now?
I had amazing, supportive parents. Not all of our moms get that, but I get to have parents that are that supportive. And so I knew I was going to go on to school.
So I did go on to college. And at first I had these big dreams that I was going to be an actress and move to New York prior to having my son. And quickly realized that was not in my cards anymore. And so I thought, well, I'm going to be a teacher because you still get to act and have fun and be with kids. So I went to college and got my degree in LA elementary education with a minor in English, teaching English as a second language.
So from there I taught first grade and third grade, interestingly enough, on a Native American reservation, which was really interesting because I got to learn the Native American culture and we got to teach Apache in our classes and do a lot of the different cultural events with that. So that was a really interesting experience.
And then from there moved on to working for two different state departments of education for over 12 years.
I worked for the Arkansas Department of Education and I worked for the Colorado Department of Education. That's what brought us to Colorado. And from there I really worked on developing and implementing statewide initiatives really around behavior and literacy, some with students with disabilities and some with schools like struggling schools. So I got a lot of great skill set and systems work and evaluation, which led really nicely into how we came here.
So when I first came to Colorado, I definitely had a calling. I can remember where I was when God called me. He's like, you are meant to work with teen moms. That is why I made you a teen mom. And so I remember when I came to Colorado looking for somewhere that served teen moms, I didn't know places like Hope House existed.
Nothing like Hope House was in my small little town to help me.
And so when I first started looking and found Hope House, I emailed Lisa Stephen and got to meet with her and started volunteering and then got the amazing opportunity shortly after that to join the board.
So I was on the board of Hope House for about a year and a half, which was amazing experience to kind of oversee it from that level. And then the director of programs position came open, and it was really, you know, when God just equips you for what you need, your next steps. And I had the right skill set that was needed at that time. I had obviously a passion and desire to want to support moms, to mentor moms, to walk alongside moms and have this amazing program team that I was able to oversee and support with your help.
And, yeah, so started as the director. Programs have been in that role for three years. And what a journey it has been we've been through. Yeah. Redesigning our program, team structure and starting the housing support program and our mental health. And our biggest project we're going to talk about soon is our early learning center that Lisa and I got to really oversee and design and start. So.
But do you want to tell them a little bit more about how you came to Hope House and what your why is of why you're here? Yeah.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, thanks. I just learned a lot of new stuff about you. It's really, really cool and so fun to work alongside you, Jenny. And you are. You are so gifted at what you do, and we are so lucky to have you.
It's. Yeah, it's been a packed three years. It feels crazy that. That it has only been three years with all that we've put into this since you've been here. But yeah, I, like I said, just all of my work with children and families, it's definitely my passion. And just empowering young women has been part of that journey as well. But I definitely felt called and I felt God was very present in the details.
I learned about Hope House through Melinda Smith, one of our parent educators who worked for Hope House for many years. And crazy way that God weaves stories together, but she was my son Christian's very first soccer coach when he was 4 years old. And that was. That was how I met her. And then our paths just Continued to cross throughout the years. And she introduced me to Hope House and had shared a job opportunity. And it just wasn't the right time at that. At that time. And then I had just been working with children and families for, you know, 20 plus years. I hate to say that because that tells you how old I am, but had been working and just kind of talking to my husband about, like, I just feel like God's calling me to something more and something bigger, and I want him to have a bigger impact and a larger reach for the kingdom. And it wasn't long after that Melinda texted me and let me know that the Early Learning program manager at that time position was open and asked if I would be interested. And I applied for that. And it's just been a really beautiful journey ever since.
The program has grown tremendously in the time I've been here. I've been here almost seven years, and we've elevated the early learning program from early learning program to early learning in school age program.
And I always, when I started, they had mentioned, you know, that one day they wanted to have an early learning center, and it felt so far away. And then God's timing was just.
Was it sped things up. And that. That has been a really fun story to be part of and just get to get to talk about the Early Learning center here in a bit.
But, yeah, I just. I feel. I feel truly honored and blessed that I get to be part of this work every day.
And it just. This is the place that allows me to do what I love. I get to share the love of Christ with moms and kids, get to work with them each day and just see the joy and get to share my three favorite things. I get to work with kids and families. I get to share Jesus. And we even have therapy dogs here. And dogs are also a favorite part of my story.
So, yeah, that's a little bit about how I found out about Hope House.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that's crazy, Lysa, that we both had such a strong calling. And I remember talking to my husband about the same. I mean, I had been in education at that point, like 17, 18 years, and sometimes thinking about, like, shifting a career, it feels like such a big change. And I never really researched the nonprofit world, and boy, am I happy I made that leap. Like, it was definitely felt a little scary, right? Leaving what you know, But I knew I wanted to obviously work with teen moms, but I had no idea how. What a humbling experience working at Hope House and getting to be a part of this journey with Our moms and support them in their self sufficiency through the amazing times where we get to celebrate with them and ring the gong and clap and cheer because they've got their driver's license, which for them, some of them, they never saw a path forward to know how to, how to do something like that for others. Right. That was something that was just expected of us to.
I think of some of our moms that are in college and only 2% of teen moms graduate college. And one of our moms I have a quote with at the end, she's getting her nursing degree because of the Early Learning Center. Right. Changing her life forever and providing opportunities for our moms to graduate high school.
And for some of them, it's their first generation of their family. I still remember talking to a dad at one of the high school and GED graduations and he was very emotional and very tearful. And I like to meet all the families when we're at those events because I love that we hold a high school and GED graduation for our moms and they still get that experience to walk across the stage and get celebrated.
And he was really emotional because she was the first one in their entire family ever to graduate high school. And that just stuck with me of, wow, how proud he was. But how her desire to change her life for her and her little one now has changed the course of her, her little ones and her family forever and ever and ever. So we could probably talk for a really long time of just all the ways that Hope House has impacted us and how proud we are of our moms and kids and the amazing staff that we have.
But I would love to shift us into talking about the Early Learning Center.
So this is our newest program that we have here at Hope House. But before we kind of dig into how it came about, maybe you can just tell the listeners if they're not familiar with our Early Learning Center. Lisa, just tell them a little bit more about what is our early learning center and who does it serve before we kind of go into all of our favorite memories.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I would love to. So we've had our early learning in school age program for a while outside of our runs out of our resource center.
And that allows us to serve the moms and their kids immediately. It removes that immediate barrier as they start on their self sufficiency journey. But we can only serve them for three hours a day. So that's a great first start. And there's a lot of amazing work that happens through that program. But you Know, obviously our moms are doing great things because they're so motivated to break cycles and just accomplish so much. And so they're moving forward in careers and education and they need full time care. And I think one of the things that was really, you know, frustrating in my previous role was really, you know, moms having so much motivation and just desire to move forward and the only thing standing in their way was having a safe place for their child to be all day.
And so that was really, it felt really defeating to, you know, call childcare centers and be told that they didn't have any openings and that mom was really kind of stuck at that point. And so this early learning center is removing a huge barrier to self sufficiency and it serves kids six weeks up to pre K.
And we also have a school age summer camp program to provide full continuity of care for school age kids ages 5 to 12 throughout the summer months, which is huge.
And we serve children of teen moms as well as children of our staff at Hope House. So it's a really special place. Very unique place for sure.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Yes.
We're going to talk about more about the building and how we designed it, but it's been exciting starting this new program because prior we had our early learning and school age program that was able to provide support for our moms for three hours a day as they were on site, which was great for our moms to be able to come in. And we'll continue to do that. Right. And take classes and meet with staff.
But what a game changer. Like you said, to remove this barrier. We always say the, the three main barriers for our moms are childcare, housing and transportation. And to remove this barrier. We already have so many stories, right. Of how it's been a game changer for our mom and looking forward to the future and all that's going to bring.
But what before we kind of dig into talking maybe about like building it and construction. I think we'll go to a short break and we'll be back in just a minute.
Yay. You guys are killing it. You're at 17 minutes right now.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Is that too soon? Okay. Okay. I couldn't remember the clock of when we started.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: So it doesn't have to be completely half like, okay.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Because then.
Okay, how long are we at? 17. 17. So when do you want us to talk to? Just so I. Maybe. Maybe like at least another 20 minutes. Okay. So 15, 25, 35. Yeah, but if you go more than.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: That, that's great too.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: Okay. For at least 21 minutes. Yeah. Okay.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: I feel like I'm stumbling all over my words.
[00:17:33] Speaker A: I think we're doing a lot of answers.
My husband already told me, but I was like, no, I'm not noticing. It just sounds natural.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: Okay, okay.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Like, perfect grammatically.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: And that's.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Podcasts are supposed to be casual, so. Yeah, that's what I thought. You guys are feeling it.
If you just want to say something like, okay, we're back and now we're going to talk about this or something. Yeah. Okay.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Do I need earthquake?
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Oh, are they moving chairs or something? They must. I think Marie is finishing her deep clean. No, she was moved all the chairs to do her deep clean. So this is the kitchen table above us.
Okay. So now we're gonna go into construction, and I feel like we can banter for a little bit about that and then some memories and then we're going to talk a little bit about programming or construction.
Programming.
How did it go? Yeah, construction. Like a little bit about the programming we had to create for the center, and then some of our favorite memories, and then we're going to end it. That's awesome. I think.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, Sounds good.
Should we banter about lights and floor tiles and.
I'm just kidding.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: Selecting those lights, I mean.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Oh, it was. Yes.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: How worse.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: Every morning when I open that building, I look at them and I'm like, that took so long.
There they are, all of them.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: What? Like what. What type of light, how much light they gave off, how much they costed, what color they were, what design they were going to be, where they were going to be positioned, what was their light circumference? What Cool lights. Lights. Lights above the sinks.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Lights. Warm lights. Staging gives me a little ptsd. I'm like, don't talk to me about lights.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know if listeners want to know all that, but it was funny because now.
Now we can laugh about how many hours and it just shows. We're going to talk about that.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: The level of detail and intentionality.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: And intentionality. That was.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Put into.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: And then the purple desk. The purple desk, yes. That was a surprise.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Oh, you guys didn't select that?
[00:20:14] Speaker B: We didn't.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: We didn't. But we won't sail. No, we won't.
Our architect selected it for us.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: I was like, wow, I don't remember that.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Sounds like you'll probably be good.
Hi, listeners. Welcome back.
I'm here again with Lisa kp, and we're gonna dive into talking about the Early Learning Center.
So, Lisa, what Do you remember as some of the unique or memorable memories you have around the construction of the elc? Because you and I really got to walk side by side with our architect and our amazing construction team to design and build that new early learning center.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, if somebody had told me years ago that I would be part of a team that got to dream big and design a center from the ground up or help design a center from the ground up, I would have never believed that in a million years.
We had a really incredible team, though, of people, and I think it was just, what an incredible blessing to not only remove a barrier, but be able to really dream big and know what helps our moms and kids feel safe and comfortable and know what their needs are and really being able to think through intention, like just building it intentionally for them for their specific needs, and just really getting to think about what would that look like and, you know, what would. What kinds of classrooms would we want? And, you know, making sure that we had room for early intervention services and all of the things that are so important and staff, break room, all the details. And, you know, going and touring other centers and just seeing things that we really loved about those centers and making sure we had it or things that maybe they wished they had that we got to really advocate for and have in our center. So those are some of my really fun memories. And I think one of the things that really just sticks out to me is that was just an open field. It was a field that we would put pumpkins in for all the kids to come and pick a pumpkin at Trunk or Treat.
And I have the sweetest picture of a little girl, Yatseli. She is a daughter of one of our alumni who is now a staff and an infant teacher picking a pumpkin out of that pumpkin patch. And Cynthia, her mom, is one of our teachers at the Early Learning center. And Yatseli is in our summer camp this year. And so just seeing her as a little toddler holding this pumpkin on this open field and now knowing that she's coming every day and her mom's coming every day and her brother's there every day at this early learning center that. Yeah. That God built to remove these barriers is just pretty incredible.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that gives me goosebumps. Lisa.
I was remembering back to one of the first meetings we got to have with our architect and really talking about dreaming big, Right? We really got to lay out what are all of our mom's needs and what are the spaces like the early intervention. We knew that we would have quite a Few kids that needed that early intervention support. And it's not common in most or any childcare centers, most of them. Right. Or schools, to have a dedicated room for an early intervention or a therapist to be able to pull out and then being able to create that multipurpose room where that could be used for therapy. It could be used for indoor recess on all of our snowy days also. So we've used it already many, many times since opening for staff professional development. And we just had our parent educator in there the other day teaching a parenting class to our families.
So that was one of my favorite memories of, like, I remember getting to dream really big and create some spaces that aren't there today because we had to kind of keep scaling down a little bit to get it to where we needed to.
And I think I want you to tell some stories because I think they're hilarious of.
As we were building this building, we had kids on site right through our early learning and school age. And the stories are hilarious of what these kids thought. They knew it was going to be their school, but they couldn't quite understand why it was being built, what was happening. So maybe you could tell a few of those stories.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It was so fun to watch this building just take shape through the eyes of our children. And they knew it was going to be their school. They would say, that's my new school.
But, yeah, like you said, I don't think that they had any idea what it would look like. And so I do remember when we broke ground and we had the groundbreaking ceremony, and they all had their little hard hats and their shovels, and they. You know, I think some of them really thought that we were going to build that center that day. And they were a little disappointed that they just got to shovel some dirt. But they loved watching all the construction equipment from the windows of our early learning classrooms out of the resource center. And we broke ground, and it just. It happened to be a really, really rainy spring. And so initially we just had this giant hole in the ground that just kept filling with water. And the kids were so excited that we were having a swimming pool. And so they all thought that our new school was going to be a pool.
And then I remember the next phase was this elevator shaft that was just tall and. And skinny. And they looked at it kind of with wonder of like, where are all of our toys gonna go? And how are we all gonna fit in that school?
And then it took more shape, and the big focus became, are we gonna have potties in our New house.
And yes, so many. So many of them.
Yeah, I just, I remember it was Kai who yelled that, you know, leaving the playground one night, are we gonna have potties in our new house?
And yeah, so many of them. And he's joining us for summer camp this year too. So it's just really, it's really fun to see, just to see it take shape through the kids eyes and just that they get to enjoy that and they know it's a space specifically for them and our moms know it was built for them and it's their safe space to belong.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah, I was one of my.
We were laughing earlier about just how much a sweet example of like how much intentionality was put into this building. From everything, the design to what went in that building, how it was laid out, and how much time we spent on lights. Right. Like just talking about what were the right lights, what was the right shade of lights, where did the lights need to go, how much light did they put out, how much would that be safe enough for kids walking up and down those stairs? Because we knew they have to be two years old in one day, over two years old to go upstairs. We were going to have kids up and down those stairs every day. So it was kind of amusing, right, of how much time we spent on that. But it was so important because it was a big part of the design.
And I was reflecting last night as I was thinking about talking about the construction with you, of. Do you remember when we were opening and Lakeshore was our furniture supplier for all of our classroom furniture?
And it was a pretty tight timing from when we finished construction to the point where we could start putting furniture in the classroom. So we had over. I believe it was like over 700 boxes delivered. And those poor Lakeshore guys had to carry that up the stairs. But we had all of these boxes and then classrooms. And we were about two or three days out from having one of our openings, our grand opening. And it was all hands on deck at that point.
All the staff, in true Hope House fashion, were assigned to a room and were unpacking children's toys and putting toys away and moving furniture around so that the classrooms would be ready for people to come in and see them. But that was it cracks me up now. It was a lot of work then, but it was one of those true Hope House moments where like, everyone pitched in. So every single person that was on staff then had a piece in opening that building and ensuring that it was ready for all of our champions to see it. And Our moms and kids for the first day.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah, I remember that well. It was like the largest Christmas ever. Unboxing of toys.
Yes.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
Well, do you have anything else you want to share about construction or should we.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I think one of the really. I think one of the really memorable moments for me and something that just. I think about pretty much every day that I'm in that building is just when we had our framing party and we were able to invite staff and champions to come in and just cover the entire building with scripture. And so it's not something to be taken lightly that we are just covered in God's word every single day over there. And to be able to walk through those hallways and hear the kids praying at snack time and mealtime and just know that, like, every beam in there has a scripture verse on it is really incredible. And it was just really fun to just walk through and see all the scriptures that were written on the walls and on the boards in the building. And that's one of my. My favorite memories, too, as part of our construction process.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, I love that. That was.
I remember that day very well. That was a very amazing day. And. Yeah, to know all of that is in the building and to be able to share that with moms so well.
Yeah. Where do we want to talk a little bit about programming and how we set that up?
[00:30:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I would love to.
So, yeah, I think once we got through the detail of the building and the construction and while they were doing all the amazing work having that building come to life, we then realized, yeah, we have some big decisions to make around programming and really wanting to ensure high quality care for our kids and our moms and just make sure that we are creating spaces that were trauma informed and were beautiful and bright and had all of the materials that our kids need to learn and grow and really wanting to be intentional about setting these kids up for success and helping them start kindergarten strong. So I remember hours upon hours in the Lakeshore catalog, Kati, our parent educator, and I just. And Jenny just looking through and just placing this big order of what we wanted to put in there, and looking through curriculum and assessment tools and really just making sure that we were picking and selecting the things that would be beneficial for our kids. Not just their academic education, but their spiritual education, just their emotional, their social.
Just really wanting to give that whole child approach and just remembering the things that make our moms feel safe and cared for and allowing us to fully build that trust with them and have our kids excited to come into that building every day. So playgrounds. Selecting a lot of playgrounds and surfaces and where all the gates would go and yeah, just all of the programmatic pieces.
And then of course, you know, hiring and just really praying about who God was going to bring. And just really, he has called a really incredible team of people to.
To be part of that early learning center.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I remember. Yeah, Hiring was. And still continuing to be a piece that has just been a big piece of opening that center. And I think from my perspective, being the director of programs, I really wanted to make sure we had the right programming, not only for our teen moms and kids to ensure they were successful, but for our staff in that we wanted to make sure to keep that culture right, that hope House culture. When we opened the building. And we had a whole change management process of how we did that. But ensuring that our program team felt like one team was so important to me and you and our other program leadership and the leadership of our organization.
And so we had to create lots of new processes like how are we going to communicate now that we were in three different buildings, we have some staff in our residential house and now in the ELC and then the resource center and. And what did that look like? And how would we support moms where some staff were working more directly with moms and some staff continuing to work with kids and now the early learning center having them all day. So that was something that was a priority on my mind and really creating those good communication processes for how we would work together on that and continue to support our moms and walk alongside them because we removed this barrier. Part of our criteria is, you know, that moms are growing in their self sufficiency. So what was our support we needed to provide to have our moms grow?
[00:34:22] Speaker B: But.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Yeah, well, maybe we could shift. Unless you have anything else you want to share there. Do you want to shift to talk a little bit more about some of our favorite memories?
[00:34:33] Speaker B: Sure. Okay. Yeah, that sounds great.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: So let's talk about some of our favorite memories of opening the center. Grand opening.
You know, now that the center's open, what are some of your favorite memories or things that are happening that you want to share with listeners?
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it's.
Yeah, there's so many. It's hard to even choose a favorite. I think.
I think just getting to open the doors for our teen moms and their kids to come in there just and walk through the classrooms and get to meet teachers and really just get to see all of the amazing things and Know that that was their space. And just the excitement, you could just feel it. The tangible excitement of all of our Hope House staff, but our teen moms, our champions, the kids. There was just a tangible energy of them coming in with their little backpacks and running through the hallways. And I think it was. It was really neat to see the building set up and all those classrooms that we envisioned and all the materials we purchased be ready.
It didn't feel real, though, until you heard kids in that building and running down the hallways and crying because they didn't want to leave because there was just so much fun and fun to explore. And seeing their friends there, that was really special. And I think another really fun memory that kind of happened right before opening is we had the opportunity to take the moms and kids up to Estes Park.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: And get some photos by Noah's Ark. There's a gift shop up there that looks like Noah's Ark. And our theme in the building is Noah's Ark. And so taking them to the mountains, some of them had not experienced that before, and that was really cool. Some of them were afraid that bears were going to come out, and so that was funny. But just taking those pictures and having the kids see themselves on the walls of our building, so they got to see themselves just reflected in the photos in our building, and they get so excited to see their siblings on those walls and then all of the amazing animals that are outside of Pictures of animals that are outside of each and every classroom.
That was really special.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that I forgot about the Noah's Ark trip. That was a lot of fun. I didn't get to go on that. But being able to take the moms up there and take all those beautiful pictures.
Talking about pictures for one of favorite memories. And if you haven't been to Hope House, like, our building has all of these amazing, beautiful pictures of our moms and kids all throughout. So it was one of our big design elements with the new early learning Center. Right. We know we wanted to have our kids pictures all throughout there. So opening day, grand opening, we had a lot leading up to that, that day. And I remember just thinking, I'm going to be first in that building because I want to see the faces of our moms when they walk through that door. That was my gift to myself. I was like, after all this work, I have to see their faces. And so I was standing right by the front desk. And a lot of our moms that got to be the first ones in the building on our grand opening. And it's giving me goosebumps right now.
And seeing them. I still remember one of our moms walk in and her just looking around in disbelief that this would be done for her, that she.
That this was the place that her daughter got to go and someone loved and cared and these amazing champions she didn't even know supported this building and loved and cared for her this much. She had just never, ever experienced anything like this and just kind of burst into tears. And then she.
She continues the walk in and she sees this amazing, beautiful picture and her daughter is in that picture and her daughter just running up and being like, mommy, that's me.
And, you know, the same Mia as she walked through the door on that first day of school, because she goes there just, you know, throwing her arms up in the air. I'll never forget it. And she was just like, this is my school. Right? Like her place to belong. Like, you can't make that up. Like, they're just. This is changing lives and giving them.
Giving them this place where they are safe and they can learn and grow.
And now this mom can work and go to school and do all the things they need to.
It's. Yeah, it's amazing. So that's. That was one of my favorite memories with grand opening. But do you have any other memories?
[00:39:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we, you know, we did a back to school night or a welcome to school night, I guess, and just inviting, you know, the parents. We had some grandparents come in and the kids and we did an ice cream social. They got to come in and, you know, meet their teachers and see where their cubbies are and just get really ready for the day, get their little Hope House T shirts so they could wear those on the first day. And. And if you've been to our Hope House resource center, you've seen our gong that our moms get to ring for self sufficiency milestones. And we have a mini version of that in our early learning center that sits right at the front. And so many of those kids were just so excited to come in. I just remember the first day we had some kids arrive early and we weren't. It was right before opening and just their little faces waiting at the door and peeking through the window and just getting ready to run in and several of them just ringing that gong that they were their first day of school and just taking pictures.
It was pretty special. It was something I'll forever remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: I love that. Yeah, I love the little mini gong when getting to celebrate all their Milestones. So when they go potty for the first time, they get to go out there with their class and ring the gong and all their classes claps and celebrates them. And they're going to remember those things. Right. How loved they were and had a place to belong.
I was thinking about one of our moms in particular that we serve at the Early Learning center.
And I know this mom really well, and I was reading one of the quotes that she wrote for us because this center has been a really big game changer for her. And one of the lines that she put was one of the things she said is, this center, it's unlike any other Early Learning center I've ever experienced through her years of being a mom.
And I know for a fact that both of my boys are loved as if they were the staff's own children.
I mean, how impactful is that, right? Of just. Our moms know, they trust us and to have a place where they know their little ones are not only safe, they're going to learn and. And excel and grow. So our moms. And this particular mom is now able to go to school full time on site, and she's working towards her nursing degree.
And to know, I mean, anyone that's become a nurse, that's a lot of work to do that. That she knows her boys are safe and that they're being treated as if they were their staff's own children. So I thought that was a powerful quote to include today.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah.
That makes me feel a little tearful.
Yeah. Very emotional.
[00:42:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
Well, I think we could probably go on for a long time just with all of our memories and stories and how the center is continuing to change the lives of our moms and our kids and our staff. Right. Like, you can't be like, it's very humbling to work at Hope Housing to see this. It's very humbling of how much you grow and those.
God's way of, you know, weaving things together so everyone is growing and learning together. But I think as we end today, I would love for us to talk about just what, you know, what is our greatest hope for the future for the Early Learning Center? What are we grateful for for the Early Learning center for our moms and kids?
[00:43:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I would say, first and foremost, so thankful for God to calling this into being and just bringing the right people around the mission and supporting prayerfully and financially and just with their skill sets. And, you know, everybody that had a step in this process helped form that center. And I think to see it you know, continuing to grow or continuing to grow enrollment. And, and I think that's my greatest hope is that it would just continue to be a really beautiful place for our moms and kids and they know it's their place to belong and that our kids would go through that program with full continuity of care from infant all the way up to pre K. We've had some, I just think, really special, you know, classroom graduations when they graduate from our infant room into our toddler room.
Those classrooms are connected by a little closet.
And so we've had some of our kids walk through with graduation caps on and go into the toddler program, which is really fun. And we're just starting to talk about our first pre K graduation that will happen here in August after we conclude our first summer camp program. So there's a lot of big firsts. And so I'm just really excited just to continue to support even more moms in their self sufficiency journey and making sure that their kids are set up well, that they receive early intervention if they need it, that they, they just we can love on the whole child and make sure that they're ready for kindergarten and they, they come to know God through the process or draw nearer to him through this experience and just. Yeah, continue to grow our team over there and just refine what we've already started. But just to continue to really make that, that program thrive. That's, that's my hope and that just God would be glorified through all of it.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you, Lisa. Yeah, I have very similar hopes of just first thanking our amazing champions that provided us to be able to open that building debt free and to be able to serve the moms and dad and children that we serve and change their lives forever and support our moms in that, that crucial step towards self sufficiency of having quality child care.
Yeah, I think my hope is similar of just continuing. I want to continue to share those stories about those huge milestones that our moms are overcoming and those barriers they're overcoming and milestones they're achieving because of knowing that their child is in a center where they are safe and loved and seen and belong and grow and thrive just as our moms are as we continue to walk alongside them and really ultimately breaking that cycle of generational poverty and building a better future for them and their children. There's nothing better than that. And that is why we're here, I think, to end today. Just. Thank you listeners. Thank you for tuning in. It's been fun to talk a little bit more about our early learning center. And hopefully in a year from now, we can come back on and tell you all the great stories we have and some more fun stories of what our kids have done and achieved, as well as our moms. But, Lisa, thank you for being on with me today. It's been a joy to talk about this. Yeah.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: Thank you, Jenny. It's been a lot of fun. This work is this work has been really fun.
It's great to see it open and thriving. And I look forward to many more years.
[00:46:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you, listeners. And we'll see you tuning in to the next episode of Life Renewed.
Know about you?
Oh precious soul?
The things I didn't know? The things I didn't know about you?
About you.
