Committee for Services to Youth, Inc. (Bowling Green, Ohio) records

The Committee for Services to Youth, Inc. was a group that worked closely with troubled teens and other adolescents that had to be removed from their regular schools. These children often had legal problems and either had prison records or were put into foster homes. Hope House was designated as a group home for male adolescents, as an alternative to incarceration within the prison system. It also acted as a half-way house, as a substitute for foster care.

Hope House began as a foster home located in Bowling Green in 1972, but the following year it was incorporated as “The Committee for Services to Youth”. After its incorporation its focus shifted towards behavior modification of its residents. In the fall of 1976 it moved to a more permanent location at 327 South Main Street in Bowling Green, and served approximately twenty-five youths per year. During the height of its importance Hope House had the capacity to take in ten males, ages fifteen to eighteen, from the local area. In 1979 Hope House was destroyed by a fire, but plans were made to renovate the building as well as expand to include a Teaching Family Foster Home for six female pre-delinquent youth. However, Hope House was dissolved completely after 1982. Yet, the Committee for Services for Youth still functioned within Bowling Green for another decade, with the last board meetings taking place in 1992.