Hope Street is The Greenhouse for People on 26th and Capitol. We provide housing and community to empower broken men, women, and children to cultivate a relationship with Jesus, themselves, and others to restore hope that flourishing is possible for us all.
staff Team
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ASHLEY THOMAS
Executive Director
“Our neighborhood is one in whose reputation precedes it. We have addiction, poverty, crime and abuse. All of it eventually feels like the norm if you stay long enough. Yet, on our corner, we fight against it all, by inviting it in. We acknowledge we bring our own mess in with us, yet somehow together, beauty is made from the ashes. The day I chose to walk into Hope Street, was the day I realized I could never not return.”
On staff since December 2013
KENDALL SCHOENIKE
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Assistant Executive Director
“I love that Hope Street keeps the important things important. You can't count the depth of love our community has for one another. You can't score gratitude, patience or acceptance. We can't number those whose relationships with God became better and closer since knowing Hope Street. Despite not being quantifiable, our perception and feelings of the world, for one another and for Christ matter. Those values that can't be counted or seen mean so much to me, and those values are amplified at Hope Street.”
On staff since March 2020
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MICHELLE WILLE
Executive Assistant
“Being a part of Hope Street means...slowing down, showing up, working together and pushing through, reaching out and digging in - learning to love yourself and love others as image bearers of the one true Father.”
On staff since February 2022
JUSTIN SARAUER
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Operations Director
"Being a part of Hope Street inspires the Truth in God's will in being a Greenhouse For People. We are called to be faithful and consistent, loving and available. A greenhouse is a greenhouse all year long. It is nothing more and nothing less. The calling is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow. Hope Street is standing in the Truth that God is at work in the hearts of women and men and children. And we are a part of His will to love everyone here."
On staff since March 2023
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HANNAH DIRKSE
Social Worker
"I love that Hope Street is a place where we can meet and be met in all cycles of the growth process. We, individually and collectively, get to be a part of a much bigger story, broken pieces and all."
On staff since August 2016
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KELLY BENTLEY
Shechem at Hope Street Security
"When I think of Hope Street I think of love, togetherness, brokenness, strength but fixable. Hope Street is a place that has all those things and offers it to every single person that walks through those doors no matter the age or race. It’s a community that will love on you till you learn to love yourself. It has so many things to offer. I entered in 2011 BROKEN, now I’m there whole but growing and offering help to others just like me. Can’t think of any other place I’d rather be."
On staff since April 2023
JAMIE CHAPMAN
Membership Director
"Hope Street is truly living out what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world! What a privilege it is to join this community that seeks to be built up together through cultivating hope and protecting one another. This is a place of peace, growth, and encouragement and daily reminds me that God's strength and goodness is so evident through my own weaknesses (2 Cor 12:9-10)."
On staff since September 2023
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MARK BERQUIST
Book Keeper
“Being a part of Hope Street means making a difference in the City of Milwaukee for Christ.”
On staff since April 2023