2024 Health Care Champions Health Care Organization – Small: Restoring Hope LLC

Mental health is critical to well-being, according to Restoring Hope LLC CEO Staci Owen, and she says that’s the focus of her organization’s caregivers and team members.

“Our efforts help create belonging while building meaningful relationships, which aid in not only the mental restoration but physical improvements in the lives of the individuals we serve,” she says.

Restoring Hope contracts with licensed nurses who ensure those served by the organization receive optimal care. The organization also works with school systems, pharmacies and medical professionals.

“The care provided to our individuals gives them the stepping stools to live their best life,” Owen says. “By routinely communicating and observing behaviors and overall content, our team is able to assess the overall health of our individuals and the best path forward.”

Founded in southwest Missouri in 2008, Restoring Hope is contracted through the Missouri Department of Mental Health and the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services to offer host home services, individualized supported living, day habilitation, employment services and respite care. Today, its services happen across nearly of the state.

Its website notes the organization’s aim is to provide a supportive atmosphere upholding the rights of individuals with disabilities to be free to make decisions, be an integral member of their community and be the best they have the desire to become.

“Restoring Hope helps local patients by providing safe housing and a connection to the community through desired events, medical appointments, schooling and/or recreational outings,” Owen says.

Additionally, it connects caregivers with training, helping them improve the care they provide,”  she says, noting it does so through a recently developed model of service known as the shared living model.

“Initially, individuals were established in individualized supported living settings and were cared for or looked after by hourly staff,” she says. “The shared living model allowed individuals to be placed in nurturing, wholesome families where behaviors were minimized or eliminated.”

Within five years of providing services under this new model, she says, individuals who had been in residential settings because of behavioral disorders were becoming successful members of their community.

The organization not only cares for individuals, but advocates for their rights, she says.

“We meet with legislators to share our vision and request support for legislative change that will directly improve the lives of those we support,” she says.

She adds that Restoring Hope works to enhance meaningfulness and overall contentedness in the lives of the people the organization serves, as well as their natural families, host home providers and community members.

“Each service compounds upon the other, and the resources we provide to our communities are ones we hope to expound on and improve each year,” she says. “We are restoring hope one relationship at a time.”