NELSONVILLE, Ohio – Ohio’s new Appalachian Neighborhood Grant Program, which plans to inject $500 million into the state’s 32 Appalachian counties introduced its first 4 recipients in March. The most important grant, $25,793,806, goes to the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program to assist increase their psychological well being and advocacy providers, particularly via the company’s restoration villages. 

The primary village will graduate its first cohort of members within the subsequent few months, and because the program hopes to set them up for achievement, Jen Seifert, the chief director mentioned this grant will set the stage for this system to develop in tandem with its communities and supply higher alternatives for members as soon as they depart.

For almost a decade, the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program has been working to assist survivors of sexual and home violence and different types of trauma throughout Southeastern Ohio, although New Leaf Justice Enterprises is a comparatively new program.

The primary Restoration Village began in Nelsonville within the fall of 2021 as Jen Seifert labored with native companions to seek out methods to include extra neighborhood connection and cohesion into the restoration course of to assist set survivors as much as “flip over a brand new leaf” and re-establish themselves as part of a neighborhood help community.

“We simply began speaking and dreaming and that is the place the thought was born,” Seifert mentioned.

The thought was to create a “village” inside a neighborhood like Nelsonville. The New Leaf Market serves because the public-facing anchor. A mixture espresso store and market for native artists, the shop served as a spot for members to work and earn a wage whereas they develop the onerous and tender abilities to land them employment alternatives after this system.

Charlie Chadwick, the workforce improvement program supervisor, mentioned he works straight with the members to assist them rediscover what their values and ambition may be, one thing that may be onerous to find out amid trauma. Then from there, he helps direct them towards employment alternatives.

“As a result of when of us are in a position to determine what their values are then they higher determine that inside organizations and corporations that they’re serious about working for,” he mentioned.

This system additionally supplies counseling, little one care, and case administration providers all inside a 10-minute stroll of the impartial housing models this system supplies.

“When individuals are making an attempt to mobilize the issues that they should stay a wholesome and steady life, having them inside strolling distance is absolutely essential as a result of lots of our of us can’t afford a automobile,” Seifert mentioned. “It issues, even only for staple items like shopping for groceries, garments and footwear.”

The mannequin has labored so effectively in Nelsonville, Seifert mentioned SAOP has already labored to get variations began in Athens and Glouster, however as Nelsonville’s first New Leaf cohort prepares to maneuver on, case managers like René Redd see quick wants for extra help. She mentioned lots of their members have expressed concern about housing and transportation boundaries which may stop them from staying within the communities the place they’ve constructed up this community of help.

“There simply aren’t a variety of choices inside Nelsonville which is the place lots of people wish to keep as a result of that is the place they have been born, the place they have been raised and the place they wish to proceed to develop their roots,” she mentioned.

A lot of the almost $26 million will go towards reasonably priced housing options, together with the development of 3D-printed reasonably priced housing and the renovation of downtown buildings.

Seifert sees neighborhood preservation as a key a part of the New Leaf mission.

“Not simply assist households set a trajectory to long-term stability as a result of they’re survivors, however particularly in mild of the ways in which the mandatory response to the pandemic disrupted issues additional for people in our program,” she mentioned.

In that approach, Seifert hopes these restoration villages may help the survivors, their neighbors and the whole area thrive.

In accordance with a launch from the governor’s workplace, New Leaf was one of many chosen tasks, partly as a result of it was “shovel prepared” and may start building or implementation within the subsequent 90 days.