DETROIT – Nonprofit organization Boys Hope Girls Hope Detroit received a $100,000 grant award from The Carls Foundation to rebuild and make way for a brighter future for children.
The organization is about more than construction -- it's about transforming lives. Inside a house nestled in the Green Acres neighborhood of Detroit, a new chapter is unfolding for Boys Hope Girls Hope.
The organization's hope house for girls is being renovated for the first time in decades.
"It's bittersweet because it feels like I'm losing some memories, but at the same time, I'm going to gain new ones for our young people," said Rebecca Limbaugh, of Boys Hope Girls Hope Detroit.
Limbaugh works closely with teenage girls who leave their homes to live in the hope house.
"Life happens in this house -- growth, support, sadness tears," Limbaugh said.
The girls come from different backgrounds, often plagued by poverty or trauma.
"Our program is there to nurture them and to empower them and to one day go to college, be career-minded, finish, but to also be socially and emotionally health," said Patrice Johnson, executive director of Boys Hope Girls Hope Detroit.
Hundreds of girls have lived in the house, moved on, graduated from college and grown tremendously as people.
"It's really like watching a flower blossom," Johnson said.
Now, the team will watch the house itself blossom.
"Young women of color will have the opportunity to engage in art therapy," Johnson said.
The house will be designed to fit the girls' specific needs.
"Trauma-informed design, meaning soothing, calming colors that can really affect the psychology of a person when they walk into the room," said Patrick Brewis, COO of Metry Interiors.
The new house will impact the lives of many young girls today and years down the line in Detroit.