City of Hope Outreach

City of Hope Outreach (CoHO) in Conway is offering hope through providing education, opportunities, homes, and food to those in need. They work in under-resourced areas of Central Arkansas, most specifically the Oakwood, Brookside, South Ash and Mitchellville neighborhoods in Conway. CoHO was started in January of 2009 by Dr. Phillip Fletcher and his family after seeing the needs of so many. CoHO’s several different initiatives enable them to help the community. The initiatives include CoHO Garden, the Hope Home, CoHO Academy, Hope Village, and Replicate.

CoHO Garden is a community driven initiative that helps serve the food needs of residents in the CoHO communities they help. The gardens are maintained by a garden club made up of local volunteers. The volunteers not only maintain the garden, but also educated people of the CoHO communities about gardening. Over 3,500 pounds of produce has been harvested from the CoHO Garden and fed over 1,000 people.

The Hope Home serves as a transition house for men in the city of Conway. At the Hope Home, men can stay for up to 365 days and receive sustainable living, secure employment, and transition towards independent living. The other housing program of CoHO is the Hope Village.  Designed to be a small home community, the houses will serve homeless individuals and families.  Through the program, CoHO’s desire is to affirm their human dignity and offer quality housing.

Replicate was set up to help incubate, develop, and send out other people looking to start nonprofits in other communities.  CoHO assists with incorporation and securing 501(c)(3) status, leadership development, board of director development, and maintains the relationship with quarterly training.  It has successfully helped other organizations start and is working with other cities in Arkansas to build similar organizations to help those underserved communities.