Hands-On Personal Empowerment

Hands On Personal Empowerment (HOPE) engages Mason County Youth to become empowered, productive members of their local community and the world they will inherit. At HOPE we teach job skills, leadership, communication, social justice, trauma-informed nutrition, and health all through a garden modality.

Your donations support and empower at-risk youth.

    Every year, the HOPE Garden Project serves over 300 youth of Mason County, Washington; a rural community on the southern inlets of the Puget Sound. The majority of our participants live under the poverty line, are Indigenous and/or POC, and identify within the LGBTQIA+ community. Most of our youth’s families receive WIC and EBT benefits, participate in the Free Lunch Program, and are eligible for medicare/medicaid. HOPE strives to teach our community’s youth valuable lessons on work ethic, agricultural science, health/nutrition, food sovereignty, stewardship, communication, mentorship, and community building.

HOPE Garden Project is a 501(c)3 based in Shelton WA. HOPE program facilitators and board members live in the community they serve and understand the cycles of generational poverty and trauma that continue to inequitably hold many of our community’s marginalized youth back from realizing their dreams. We also understand that our community is one of strength, resilience and grit where people genuinely care about the betterment of the next generation, but many lack the skills or resources to help in meeting this goal. HOPE uses culturally responsive and trauma informed education and mentorship to push our participants forward and to remove barriers that have historically held our youth captive in cycles of apathy. For 12 years, HOPE has been effectively working alongside the youth and families of Mason County and will continue to do this meaningful work for many years to come.