Fashion show benefits therapy program

Hope House Inc. will play host to a fashion show and luncheon June 17 to benefit its therapeutic child-care program.

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"We had an event like this about three years ago, and it was very successful. So we decided to do it again," said Judy Avrett, the director of development.

The event will feature a Coldwater Creek fashion show and door prizes.

Hope House, founded in 1992, is a long-term treatment program for women suffering from substance abuse, mental disorders and trauma-related events.

Its therapeutic child-care program was created about four years ago to focus on the children, up to 13 years old, of the women who are helped by Hope House.

"The therapeutic child-care program is not a day care center, but a therapeutic program where we work with children involving their mental, emotional and social development, which may have been affected by their parent's addiction," Avrett said. "I feel that these are at-risk children, and we hope that this program will be a way to break the generational cycle of alcohol and drug abuse."

Currently, the nonprofit organization serves 15 women and 10 children, Avrett said.

The organization broke ground in January for its new facility, which is to be complete in August. The new facility will allow the organization to serve 42 families and to expand the therapeutic child-care program, she said.