Ten Years On by Co-founder Joanne Curran

I’m finding it hard to believe that someone like myself who shares a cell phone, doesn’t have a Facebook account and thought LOL meant “Lots of Love” is making the first post to Hopewell’s BLOG. All kidding aside, it really is a privilege for me to launch the newest initiative of an organization that means so much to me.

When I, along with two other moms of youth with eating disorders, made the decision to start a support centre, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. What drove us to push ahead against many odds was the harsh realization that our community was ill prepared to deal with the physical and psychological needs of our children, let alone our families’ emotional needs.

Now, ten years later, I marvel at how Hopewell has grown out of our sense of desperation to right a wrong situation, into a multidimensional support centre. Exceptional volunteers with a dogged determination to make Hopewell work, service clubs, foundations and local businesses that took a chance and invested in a fledgling grass roots organization, professional partners who recognized the centre’s potential, and a community that valued peer support, are all responsible for making Hopewell what it is today…A TERRIFIC ORGANIZATION that encourages client, public and donor confidence!