Program of HOPE Closure Announcement

By Kiley Yuthas | July 20th, 2020

It is with a heavy heart that we announce today the closure of the Program of HOPE (Healing Opportunities Promoting Empowerment) at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. The Oregon Department of Corrections has decided to end our contract and close the program effective 7/17/2020.

The Program of HOPE has been a defining moment for The Pathfinder Network and has powerfully and positively impacted the lives of all the staff and participants who shaped the program into what it has become. Over the last few years, the Program of HOPE has provided a safe space within Coffee Creek for women to begin their journey toward empowerment, healing, and recovery. With the women of the program, we built HOPE from the bottom up with so much passion, commitment… and hope.

The holistic, gender- and trauma-responsive, intensive outpatient treatment program was created to address the unique risks and needs that lead to addiction and criminal behavior, and to center the women’s stories and realities at the heart of its design. Built upon a strengths-based and client-centered foundation, the Program of HOPE prioritizes personal power and leads to self-awareness and self-efficacy. Through the program, women begin a journey toward empowerment, healing, and recovery. In our vision, we stated the goal that women emerge from the program with the motivation and ability to live healthy, fulfilling lives in recovery, cope effectively with the impacts of trauma, and continue their healing process.

Since HOPE began in 2017, more than 250 women have participated in the program, with 228 women (or 89%) women successfully completing. Program assessments determined an incredible positive impact: 77% of the women reported a reduction in the experience of post-traumatic stress symptoms, 88% reported an increase in positive and healthy coping strategies, and 83% reported a reduction in unhealthy and harmful thinking. As they move on from the program, the women carry forward the knowledge, tools and community support to live empowered, happy and healthy lives.

One of the most wonderful aspects of this program is the annual Program of HOPE Alumni Picnic, an event we hold every year for former participants and staff to connect and celebrate. That is one thing that will not change, so save the date for this year’s picnic. It will be on Saturday, September 12 at 11 a.m. If you are interested, send us an email at info@thepathfindernetwork.org.

This year especially, the picnic will honor the legacy of the program. Together we will celebrate the TPN staff who planned, designed, implemented, evaluated and improved the program and all the women who have participated in and shaped the program alongside us. We will celebrate everything that we have accomplished and everything that is yet to come as we look ahead to the future of the Program of HOPE. While it may no longer be running at Coffee Creek, we know the Program of HOPE will come back to support many more women on their journeys of healing and recovery. As we say in the program, trust the process.