Trusts and Grants fundraiser, Rachel, shares about her experience volunteering with Anne Hope House…
“Sisterhood. Resilience. Recovery. Hope. These are the words that come to mind when I think of Anne Hope House.”
I have been a volunteer at the women’s residential house for over a year, in addition to my full-time role as a Trusts and Grants Fundraiser at Bethany. My evening shifts are often spent watching true-crime docuseries, playing UNO Extreme, or simply chatting over tea and, if I’m lucky, sampling the home baking of the day before settling down for the night on the pull-out sofa bed in the living room.
Some evenings are quiet: a few women might be out at meetings or visiting friends, while others enjoy the solitude of their rooms, understandably recharging after the daily uphill walk of recovery. Other evenings are filled with laughter, games, silly pranks, DIY pamper nights, or impromptu fashion-haul try-ons. And then there are the nights of vulnerable conversations marked by grief, struggle, and frustration.
“Sometimes I arrive to laughter; on other nights, I walk in and immediately sense a heaviness in the air.”
The ups and downs reflect the reality of life within a women’s recovery house: growth, healing, hope, and transformation intertwined with relapse, mental health challenges, family and relationship breakdowns, death, and grief. I volunteer every other week, and I’m never quite sure what kind of house I’m walking into.
There have been times when women I’ve built friendships with have suddenly left due to repeated relapse: always a heartbreaking discovery.
Often, new women have just arrived, their uncertain, anxious expressions reflecting stories marked by pain and trauma, now adjusting to a safe but unfamiliar space. Other nights are marked by significant milestones: anniversaries of sobriety, restored family relationships, inner breakthroughs, or starting new volunteer placements or jobs. Ups, downs, and everything in between.
“In all of the unpredictability, it is a house marked by grace. By unconditional love for these women. By a deep belief that transformation is possible; a belief that what was once hopeless or broken can be restored.”
It has been a privilege to be part of this community of hope and perseverance.