Our Impact
Restoring Hope is dedicated to supporting organizations that support juveniles. Here's what we do, and a few of the stories behind it.
Books open doors. We help kids walk through them.
Through Mighty Oaks Giving Libraries, Children's Acorners, and our Compassion Fund, we make books and basic dignity accessible to children in Iowa's juvenile courts.
Mighty Oaks Giving Libraries
Free book-lending libraries placed in juvenile courts so judges and their teams can reward good behavior, celebrate milestones, and connect with kids — a graduation from Drug Court, an adoption, or just a good week.
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Children's Acorners
Special reading spaces in juvenile courtrooms where children can find books and a moment of calm while waiting — because a hard day in court shouldn't be a child's whole story.
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Compassion Fund & Community Support
Gift cards for essentials through Ellipsis, plus support for programs like Mentor Iowa and ArtForce Iowa's Pathways Program — helping normalize conditions for youth and their families.
Learn moreThe impact, up close
ArtForce Iowa
Helping kids find their voice through art
ArtForce Iowa's Pathways Program supports youth within the juvenile justice system with case management, mental health support, follow-up and treatment care, and life skills — helping them heal and find their unique voice through art.
Girls Drug Court
A book, read three times
The Hate U Give has been used by the Girls Drug Court team, Too Good to Lose, as part of their curriculum and discussions. Books like it have been shared with youth at the detention center, Woodward, and youth homes.
One attorney with Drake Legal Clinic brought the book to a young man in detention — deemed a "bad student," alone for the weekend. When she returned the next week, he told her he'd read it three times. He opened up about all kinds of things he wanted to share with her.
Mighty Oaks Giving Libraries
A book to bring home to a little brother
Books have been given by juvenile court teams when kids are having a rough day, in addition to meeting goals or progressing toward them. One judge likes to talk about a middle-school-age boy who so loved selecting a book that he asked if he could bring one home for his younger brother, too.
The judge also asks each kid to talk with him about the book when they return it — what they liked, how it spoke to them. It helps build trust and relationship, and fosters a culture of genuine care rather than an "us vs. them."
Where your gift goes
Giving Libraries
Provides free books to the Drake Legal Clinic and Polk County Juvenile and Family Court libraries — gifted at adoption celebrations and Drug Court milestones.
Compassion Fund
Supports Ellipsis through gift cards that help normalize conditions for youth and help families access behavioral health support.
Phoenix Award
Funds the Honorable Colin J. Witt "Phoenix Award," honoring graduating seniors headed to college or a trade school.