Hope Building, HDA’s unique and groundbreaking program that provides paid, on-the-job training in home construction for men and women in recovery, is perhaps one of the strongest and most promising lifelines our area has seen in many years. In partnership with Hickory Hill Recovery Center (one of Recovery Kentucky‘s 14 centers throughout the state), Perry County Drug Court, and Knott County Drug Court, we interview and hire six trainees from among a list of candidates referred to us by our partners. Our trainees are in an advanced and stable stage in their recovery journey.

As they work through our year-long program, our trainees take classes in carpentry and construction at Hazard Community & Technical College (HCTC) from where they will earn course certificates. They also receive hands-on learning and instruction from HDA’s professional carpenters on work sites throughout the four counties we serve. As part of our construction crews, the trainees are led by two of our most experienced on-staff carpenters. 

Hope Building trainees construct at least two homes from start to finish during their year of training. These homes are showcased and sold on the open market. All proceeds from the sale of the homes help fund the cost of training. The trainees also participate in at least five to seven home rehabilitation and repair projects.

Men and women in recovery struggle to find employment in our region usually due to stigma. HDA’s Hope Building Program gives them the opportunity to build their resumé (working closely with EKCEP to find employment after completing training), their confidence and character, their work experience, as well as actual homes and their own identities. Our program offers them the dignity of work, which in many cases they have been denied, and it also allows them the chance to belong to a crew and to a community. As they build new homes in our program, perhaps they will realize they are also building a life.

The key to sustaining life in recovery is a job, because a job is hope. And like a house, hope can be built from the ground up. Find out more about Hope Building here, and check out all the ways you can be a part of our program below.