Hope Family Center

Hope Family Center is our emergency shelter and long-term recovery center for homeless and displaced single women and mothers with children.

Hope Family Center first opened in 2004 to meet the needs of the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population: single mothers and their children. At that time, the focus at our Hope Family Center was on providing long-term (12- to 24-month) residential and life recovery services.

In 2009, we expanded our recovery program to also include single women without children.

And in 2011, in an effort to help fill an increasing service gap in our community, we expanded our scope of service at Hope Family Center to include emergency overnight shelter.


The Campus

Our Hope Family Center includes three eight-bedroom houses, where our emergency shelter guests and long-term recovery residents live in a community setting – while maintaining family privacy through separate bedrooms.

Each home includes a full-service kitchen, pantry stocked by Hope Ministries and our volunteers, living rooms and children’s toyrooms.

The campus also includes classrooms, offices, children’s activity rooms and a reception area.

Hope Ministries is grateful to the Greater Des Moines Remodelers Council for donation $150,000 in time and talent, as well as donated supplies, toward the renovation of our basement office area.

Emergency Shelter

Hope Ministries’ Family Center offered me a safe, clean and nurturing environment where drugs and alcohol are not tolerated, and an opportunity to strengthen my faith in God.” ~ Amanda, Hope Family Center resident

The purpose of the shelter program at Hope Family Center is to provide women and children who are homeless with a safe, friendly, encouraging and dignified environment. We offer these individuals and families food, clothing, shelter…and hope!

All emergency shelter residents are assigned a case manager and are required to follow house safety rules and community guidelines – including no alcohol or drugs.

While staying with us, emergency shelter residents meet with their case manager once a week and are introduced to our long-term recovery program. If they are interested in our long-term program, they will then enter a two- to three-month transitional period, at which point they will begin basic life skills classes.

HEART Recovery Program

Our 12- to 24-month recovery program provides the necessary structure, responsibility and accountability to move women from where they are when they first walk through our doors to transformational life change.

Our program is called HEART because it leads women and children through five phases: healing, equipping, accountability, responsibility and transition. While living in a safe, stable environment, women and children learn to replace addiction, anger and confusion with Christ-centered maturity through personalized case management, classes, counseling, mentoring and support groups. Our program classes fall under four categories: basic life skills, recovery, spiritual development and health and wellness.

Children’s Program

In addition to our programming for women, we also provide individualized case management for our children.

For many children at Hope Family Center, this is their first experience in a stable, secure environment. Our case managers and children’s activities coordinator create personalized care plans for each child, meant to help children develop the skills they need according to their age/grade level.

Many women who come to us are DHS-involved and in the process of court evaluation and/or trying to regain custody of their children. Our case managers are skilled in working with DHS, the court system and probation officers throughout this process.

Hope Aftercare

At Hope Ministries, we believe that the recovery process continues well beyond completion of our program. Statistics tell us that adequate aftercare is a necessity for ongoing sobriety and mental health. It is our desire to help our residents find support and accountability as they begin life outside our walls.

That’s why we have developed an aftercare plan to meet the needs of our graduating clients. We offer up to five years of aftercare for our graduates!