Living Hope Women's Centers is a non-profit ministry that started in October of 1997. After a moving Pro-Life sermon at a local church God laid the need for a Crisis Pregnancy Center on the hearts of some of the women. At that time Dinah also felt God's message to start a Crisis Pregnancy Center.
Dinah had started many Crisis Pregnancy Centers in small and rural communities throughout the years. She had also directed a center and had taken pregnant young women into her home for six years. She had taken other paths for about eight years but God was bringing her back to where her heart was. The clinic started under the umbrella of Mountain Missions Clinic sharing a room with them in their facilities. In two years God separated us from Mountain Mission Clinic and moved us to our current location.
The need for housing for unwed moms became apparent soon after we started. We placed young women in private homes but felt the solution was a maternity home. In November of 1999 we moved to our current location. The facility was perfect for our clinic needs. God threw in a full basement home. In April of 2000 "Hope House" was opened. We housed three young women and can also house pregnant women with a small child.
The original Hope House was in the basement home of the clinic. It was not fancy but it served the purpose. In the summer of 2002 a Christian woman who supported our ministry offered us a home in the pines for a fraction of the cost. It was a small, two-bedroom home. With the help of many volunteers we transformed it from a dark and dreary place to one of light. We then received a grant for $20,000 from the Lutheran Woman's Missionary League and Helen S. Boylan Foundation to add on. The addition was completed in October of 2004. We are now able to take three young women comfortably.
When we started we had about ten clients a month. We had little in pre-natal or parenting instructions. We had no adoption lesson. Yet in the first year we facilitated three adoptions. Two of them were scheduled for abortion. Since then we have developed our "Earn While You Learn" program and have extensive parenting classes and counseling. We now have between 350 and 400 visits a month.
After we got things running in Show Low it became apparent that Apache County needed their own clinic. We were getting many clients for pregnancy tests but they would not return for parenting. So, in June of 2000 we opened Springerville Clinic. In March of 2002 we were given a home to use as our office - rent-free. It took a great deal of work to get it ready for use but the community pitched in. Springerville averages 75 visits a month.
We are a ministry made up mostly of volunteers. Currently the paid positions are Executive Director, Ultrasound Program Director, Women's Ministries Director, Hopeful Treasures Director, Clinic Directors, Assistant Directors and Office personel for Show Low, Springerville and Whiteriver, and Hope House House Mother. We could not do everything we do unless we had the dedicated support of volunteers and staff. If you would like to volunteer click on Volunteer up top and fill out the application.
