Hope Inspired Ministries

Hope Inspired Ministries (HIM) was founded in Montgomery, Alabama in January of 2012, to serve unemployed individuals by preparing and equipping them to obtain, maintain, and excel at employment. Results from the original program demonstrated that even the most marginalized men and women of a community can become self-supporting, productive citizens. HIM then replicated the original Montgomery model in Birmingham in 2017, and in Lowndes County in 2020 to make three community sites.

HIM also partners with organizations around the state to implement the HIM program for their participants. The first partnership started with The Foundry Ministries in Bessemer in 2019, where the Birmingham staff taught class on Saturdays. HIM then began a partnership with the Department of Youth Services at Mount Meigs in 2021, teaching full-time in their juvenile detention center. HIM’s partnership with The Foundry Ministries grew in 2022 when the transition was made to full-time services and HIM’s curriculum became a required piece of The Foundry Ministries’s program. In 2023, this was expanded to The Foundry Farm in Cullman. HIM also started a partnership with the Lowndes County Board of Education in 2023 which brought dedicated HIM staff into Lowndes County’s two public high schools to teach the HIM curriculum to all seniors in each school. Today, these campuses are multiplying the life change transformations of the original campus.

Brief Overview of the HIM Program and Curriculum

While the HIM program is open to anyone that is 18 years old or older with a willingness to work, the majority of recruiting efforts are targeted to marginalized individuals in lower-income communities and neighborhoods. HIM also partners with homeless shelters in each location to serve individuals experiencing homelessness in an effort to help those individuals break free from the grips of poverty.

The foundation of the HIM curriculum is the Alabama Career Essentials (ACE) program. ACE is a no-cost training course designed by the Alabama Community College System to provide Alabamians with relevant, cutting-edge, and industry-driven employability skills training to better prepare individuals for the Alabama workforce. Individuals who complete the ACE program receive ACT's National Career Readiness Certificate and an Alabama Certified Employee Certificate. These certificates are proof that an individual is equipped with the skills necessary to enter a 21st-century Alabama workforce and individuals with these certificates are highly sought-after by Alabama employers.

In addition to the certificates, those who are interested in furthering their education receive one no-cost college course, and accumulated credit hours for one class when enrolled at one of the state's community colleges. This assistance can play a big role in kickstarting an individual's journey into post-secondary or technical education.

On top of the ACE curriculum, HIM incorporates an important relational aspect to remove barriers that individuals may face in their employment search. These barriers may include the need to develop soft skills such as issues with confidence, unidentified passions, or relating to people with different personalities.