CONWAY — Daniel Tyler stood in the front yard of the house Deliver Hope has leased on Robinson Avenue in Conway and looked across the street at the Faulkner County Detention Center.
“If I could pick a space, this would be it,” he said. “The idea is that it would become a central office and resource center. When you open the doors of that juvenile jail, the very first thing they see is hope. It’s a really, really neat thing for us.”
Tyler, who spent his share of nights in jail as a troubled teenager, founded the nonprofit organization Deliver Hope in 2013. It leased the house in July.
It’s the organization’s first real home, but Deliver Hope had already been providing mentoring, chapel time and life-skills sessions for teenagers in jail. Another of the organization’s programs, Her Hope, offers support for teenage mothers, including Bible studies and baby showers. Turning Point is a 12-step program for addicted teenagers. Meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. the first and third Mondays of each month at The Ministry Center, 701 Polk St. in Conway.
The house was the next big step, Tyler said.
“I’ve had my eye on it for a while,” he said of the house, which Faulkner County owns. It previously was used as a “hot-check office,” Tyler said.
Lori Melton, chairwoman of the Deliver Hope Board of Directors, said the house sat vacant for two years. She said Tyler reported to the board that 20th Judicial District Judge Troy Braswell “was pleased with what was happening and was ready to let us do more.”
Melton, who facilitated getting the house, said the organization signed an 18-month lease, which includes Deliver Hope paying for utilities and providing upkeep on the structure. She said it costs $35,000 a year to house a juvenile offender. “We’re trying to save the county, too. If we can keep five kids a year out, look what we can save the county,” she said.
Melton said Deliver Hope had a small office in The Ministry Center, “but nowhere to call home and to actually offer the services to the kids.” The house they wanted was in the perfect location, she said. “Now we can start matching these kids up to mentors to love on them and let them know it’s OK, that somebody cares.”
In his mind’s eye, Tyler said, he can see the house full of activity. He talked about his vision as he walked from room to room in the house, empty except for a desk or two.
“We’re not allowed to do any demolition; the county owns the property,” he said. The first room off the hallway to the left will be a living room for mentors and their mentees. “Every kid sent to incarceration will get a mentor,” Tyler said. Another room will be “somewhat of a dining room,” but the table will double as a pingpong table. The kitchen doesn’t have a stove, but the plan is to install a refrigerator and a “little coffee bar.”
He plans to create a media room for teenagers to use to study for the GED, do homework or play video games when their work is done.
“This is one of the exciting pieces for us because we want to be a holistic organization,” he said. “Even though we’re a Christian organization, converting them to become a Christian is not the end goal — it’s seeing them become successful in life.”
Cody Bray, director of Deliver Hope, will also serve as a “kind of case manager,” Tyler said. If a teenager says he needs a job, Deliver Hope will partner with the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services or other organizations to help him, Tyler said.
For example, Tyler said, a young man in the detention center told him a couple of weeks ago, “I get out on Friday, and I need a job, but I don’t know how to fill out a job application.”
Melton said that when board members discussed leasing the house, “we had so many people stepping up saying, ‘I know people who can teach computers’; ‘I know people who will teach GED tutoring’ — all those things that they need.”
“We’re trying to take specific things that we think can get them jobs and can get them out of the rut that they’re in,” she said. “We feel like some of these kids are troubled enough that divine intervention, basically, is going to have to bring them out and give them a purpose. They’re going to have to have help. We have to walk them through that process — OK, you need to get your GED; you’ve got to get a job.”
Youths will be able to participate in services across the street while they’re still incarcerated, Melton said, depending on their crimes.
Tyler said he hopes to get a corporate partner to supply computers and televisions for the media room, as well as sponsors to donate $1,000 per room for furnishings.
Sponsors’ logos will be placed on the front window of the house, he said, and a plaque naming the donor will be placed by the door to each room.
Members of City Church in Conway planned to come by July 30 to do a “deep clean” of the house to get it prepared for painting. The Faulkner County Youth Leadership Institute plans to present to its board a project to do landscaping and other improvements to the house.
Tyler said that in addition to corporate sponsors, more mentors are needed. Training will be held in September, he said.
More information about the organization’s programs is available on its website, www.deliver-hope.org, its Facebook page or by calling Tyler at (501) 514-4568.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.