While the Hope Afield Program was officially founded in 2016, its founders have a twenty-four-year history of working with at-risk-youth and their families. In 1994, Hope Afield’s founder and CEO, Ken Kilpatrick and his wife, Jan assisted with the start-up of another non-profit in Montgomery, Alabama called Compassion21. Compassion21 worked with 4 to 18-year-old children as well as their parents and caregivers in poverty-stricken areas and government housing communities of Montgomery. Many of these families faced poverty, child abuse, delinquency, crime-related activity, violence, drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy and underachievement in school and/or drop out. Compassion21 developed life skill classes, mentoring and tutoring programs and a benevolence center to assist these at-risk-youth and their families.
It is out of this twenty-four-year background that Hope Afield was formed. Many residents of areas of limited resources never have an opportunity to experience the great outdoors. City lights and concrete hide the natural beauty of the open fields, majestic woods, quiet streams and the star-studded heavens. Activities in the great outdoors provide new experiences that offer life altering opportunities.
It has long been known that outdoor activities, particularly those that offer relationships with animals, can have a healing effect on hurting individuals. Therapeutic horseback, recreational riding and adventure therapy often have been used successfully in reaching troubled individuals. Many disadvantaged youth have never been to a farm, riding facility, fished in a pond or camped outdoors. The Hope Afield Program is designed to afford these opportunities and provide a safe place with challenging experiences that are assisted by caring people. Our goal is to use the great outdoors as the classroom for people to find hope, healing and purpose for a wounded spirit. We seek to provide a place where guests can relax, make new friends, gain new skills, enjoy new experiences and develop a healed spirit that is life altering.
Our Partnerships
LBW Community College
Butler County Education System
Trail Life USA/American Heritage Girls
Butler County High School Rodeo Association
Lower Alabama Beekeepers Association
Butler County 4-H
Butler County Junior Humane Society
Butler County Sheriff’s Department
Butler County Judicial System
Greenville Police Department
Endless House of Hope
YMCA of Greenville
Area Churches