Thursday, April 11, 2024, the Hope Center Board of Directors unanimously voted to close the Hope Center facility in the Oak Park community effective June 1.
Hope Center has been one of Coffee County’s most successful and impactful community outreach programs since it began 26 years ago. Directors Vernon and Angie Talkington came to Oak Park when the area was rife with substandard housing, drug use, violence, and poverty.
In the years since its inception, Hope Center has been a driving force behind a transformation of the Oak Park community. The decision to close the facility came as a result of changing needs in the community. The Talkingtons issued a statement Thursday night that addressed these changes the community has experienced. In the statement, the Talkingtons assured the board that even though the facility itself was closing, the work of Hope Outreach Ministries will continue in Coffee County.
“On behalf of all present and past Hope Center board members, I want to thank God for sending Vernon and Angie to our area of Douglas and Coffee County. Without a doubt, they are two of the most committed and dedicated servants of God and His Kingdom that I have ever met. It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to be a small part of the Hope Center. To everyone who has given and supported this ministry in any way, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. God has the record, and only eternity will reveal all the souls that have been changed. God bless you all is our prayer and I ask you now to join me in prayer for the Talkingtons as they go forward in their Hope Outreach Ministries,” stated county commissioner Johnny Wayne Jowers, who represents Hope Center’s district and is a Hope Center board member.
The Talkingtons’ statement is below:
“Angie and I are blessed to have been led by God to Coffee County 26 years ago. We didn’t realize at the time, that what God had called us to do would take a real miracle. A real miracle of divine intervention, for us to accomplish what he had called us to do. It didn’t take long for us to find our purpose which was to give at-risk kids a safe place to learn and grow in the things of God. Oak Park at that time was the true definition of an at-risk community because of substandard housing, drug activity, street level crime and most of the children were at risk of never graduating high school. To date, hundreds of children have been a part of Hope Center’s program. Many have accepted Christ and are now adults leading productive lives. And I suppose, if Angie and I have any kind of legacy, it would be all those children who had all the odds against them found a way, through Christ, to break a generational mindset and found a new way to live and think. I realize we have not done this alone. We are thankful for the advisory board that allowed us to simply do what God had called us to do. That indeed is a very rare thing in ministry.
“From 2001-2008, we distributed food monthly to hundreds of people. We provided furniture, household goods, assisted people with utility and rent payments, and in the midst of it, we became their friends. We were privileged to become advocates for change in our community by bringing attention to the living conditions of Oak Park.
“We are thankful for the County Commission and other politicians that heard our cry for help. They paved our streets, put in a new water system, and set in place code enforcement. We are thankful for the Sheriff’s Department that stepped up to the plate and made a great difference in our community. We are not saying that there are no needs in Oak Park. It is apparent there is still much to be done. But we are thankful for the progress.
“We are also thankful for the churches that have supported us, for the Kiwanis Club, Exchange Club, Lions Club and Rotary Club who have supported us over these many years as well as the general public.
“In the past, most of our students came from single parent families who were on welfare. Most didn’t attend church. In the beginning, many didn’t complete high school. Several of our students were frequent juvenile court visitors. The first seven years here, we were in juvenile court with 1 or more students each month. For the past 19 years, we have not had a student in juvenile court. Today is a new day. Most of our students come from a 2-parent family with 1 or both parents working who have income sufficient to care for their families. Almost all of our students attend church. There are now 2 Hispanic churches in the Oak Park community. Within a 2-mile radius, there are multiply non-Hispanic churches.
“For the past 3 years, we have struggled to find a new purpose. Our children are getting spiritual guidance at home and church and the schools offer an after-school program for most of our students. 26 years ago, none of our students participated in organized sports at school or in the community, none were involved in any school clubs, but today, several of our students are involved in school activities. In other words, they are living a normal life.
“In the early 2000s to about 2010, Hope Center was truly the hub of our community for children and their families. Hope Center and Salvation Army partnered to meet the felt needs of Coffee County. I had the privilege of serving on the Salvation Army board when Britt Peavey was the director. We were the only 2 organizations that focused on the benevolence needs of our community. But thankful today, we have organizations like the Salvation Army, Goodwill, Families Together, The Good Deeds Club, Called to Care, and the Coffee County Food Bank meeting the tremendous needs of our county.
“Hope Center once spent most of its benevolence budget on the Oak Park community. For the past few years, our requests on any level have dropped down to rarely, if ever. The past 3 years, our spending has been outside of our community. We have helped several people move out of the Oak Park area to better communities by helping with the first and last month’s rent and security deposit. Following the pandemic, the receiving of stimulus checks allowed some of our residents to seek better housing in other communities, and for that we are thankful.
“God has sufficiently blessed us financially to run our program all these years and Hope Center is still in a good financial position. Angie and I realize that we could continue to be here, but after much prayer and counseling, we are confident that we have finished the part that God sent us here to do on this spot. We say this without regret or feelings of failure. There is a big difference between finishing and quitting. There comes a time in every ministry where you have to ask hard questions like, are we still having the impact we did? Are we still needed? The answer is, we are having more impact outside our community than we are in our community. Are we still needed? Not in the way we were needed 20 years ago. “We could continue here for another 5 years, if we chose to, but we are not built that way, just to exist. We want to make a difference. We want God to be glorified in all we do. We are not quitting. We are finishing! Someone might ask, ‘Is there a need to start something different for our community on this spot?’ For the past few years, we interviewed individuals about that possibility. But when we learned that the lease that we have with the county is non-transferable, we concluded that we would just have to leave that in God’s hands. It’s more of a feeling of completing a task that has taken us over 25 years to accomplish. We have fought a good fight; we have finished our course and we have kept the faith. Angie and I are ready to start a new chapter with Hope Outreach Ministries. We will continue to live and minister in Coffee County and other areas of South Georgia. As we partner with ministries located in what would be considered at-risk communities, reaching out to those who are not being reached by the local church. We hope to work alongside churches and other organizations and use the knowledge we have gained here to help others reach those who are in need.”
