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Penny Morrill of Restored Hope spoke at the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon Luncheon

Monday, Jul 14, 2014 | On Target Page: New Tampa, Wesley Chapel, Lutz, Land O'Lakes, Rotary Club's Activities

Penny Morrill of Restored Hope spoke at the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon luncheon last week. Restored Hope is a faith-based organization that encourages cooperation between churches, humanitarian organizations and businesses to empower and provide resources to the disabled, elderly and impoverished in East Pasco County and surrounding areas. The goal is not to duplicate services offered by other non-profits, but rather to fill in the gaps needed to help the homeless and at-risk.

Concerned community residents and members of the Northeast Pasco Ministerial Society birthed the vision in February of last year. By April, Restored Hope became an entity, and filed for its 501C3 non-profit status in June. They closed on their building at the end of June, and opened their doors on November 11, 2013. Their official opening was January 23, 2014.

According to the Coalition of the Homeless of Pasco County, 3,305 people are homeless in our community on any given day. Typically, 105 people are housed in shelters, and more than 3,200 were unsheltered. That doesn’t include those living with relatives and friends in multi-family households. Two years ago, the County’s homeless tally of nearly one percent of the population was the highest per capita rate in Florida. Restored Hope will be working with sister non-profits like the Coalition of the Homeless and Metropolitan Ministries to offer hope and healing for East Pasco County’s homeless and empower them to ultimately become self sufficient.

Restored Hope will provide case management, laundry services, picture IDs for employment, budgeting, parenting and life skills classes, interview clothing and job interview training, and hygiene items. It has a computer dedicated to ACCESS Florida where people can apply for food and medical assistance. Pasco Sheriff Nocco also named Restored Hope a distribution center for his annual holiday food drive for 2013.

Restored Hope is very fortunate to have a formal partnership with Metropolitan Ministries, an agency that has over 40 years experience serving and ministering to the poor, the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless. They currently serve in Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties.

They have helped our center in Dade City with best practices for procedures, brought their staff to in-service our staff, donated needed items and prayed generously for Restored Hope. We thank them greatly for all their support

Rotary's 1.2 million men and women (more than 34k clubs) believe it starts with a commitment to "Service Above Self." The Rotary helps support education and job training, provide clean water, combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, and eradicate polio.

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