Hearken House Ministry is a 501(c)(3) public non-profit organization where criminals, the homeless, and sex offenders can change their lives, free of charge. Our comprehensive 18 months residential program offers vocational training, education, peer counseling and mentoring leadership training, and transitional services.
Hearken House Ministry is a “classic therapeutic community.” It is based on one of the most researched and effective models for helping those with long histories of addiction and criminal behavior of the past 70 years. In a therapeutic community, the powerful influence of experienced peers is employed in place of therapists or doctors who don’t share the same life experience as our students. A summary of the research demonstrating the efficacy of this approach is available here.
Participants in our program are called “students” and they represent our society’s most serious social problems—and yet, remarkably, as a group they provide solutions to one another’s challenges. We do not have doctors, clinical therapists, or counselors a Hearken House Ministry. We are not a program based on counseling or therapy. Instead, there is no distinction in the backgrounds of leaders and students other than more time and experience living in Hearken House Ministry community and influencing others to change their lives. All have been in and out of jail or prison repeatedly and ultimately, left hopeless for a decent life.
Faculty members at Hearken House Ministry are living examples of the efficacy of the program. They themselves have done everything new students are asked to do. Thus, they have credibility to show others how to change as they have done.