Rotary honors Jean Johnson for work with homeless

By John Howell
Posted 6/27/17

By JOHN HOWELL

Jean Johnson, the founding executive director of the House of Hope, was honored Wednesday by the Rotary Club of Warwick for her work of helping the homeless and those in …

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Rotary honors Jean Johnson for work with homeless

Posted

By JOHN HOWELL

Jean Johnson, the founding executive director of the House of Hope, was honored Wednesday by the Rotary Club of Warwick for her work of helping the homeless and those in need.

Johnson was presented the club’s Hayden Bentley Award named in memory of a founding members of the Warwick service club in 1949 who went on to become a Rotary district governor at the club’s charter night at the Warwick Country Club. The Bentley Award is presented annually to a non-member of the club who has made a significant contribution to the community. Club member Scott Seaback, who chaired the award committee, made the presentation.

Johnson grew up in the Norwood neighborhood of the city and attended Norwood Elementary School and Aldrich Junior High School. It was at Saint Xavier Academy that she came in contact with the Sisters of Mercy. She was inspired by their community activism and sees that as the seed for her later work to find shelter for the homeless and long term housing for individuals and families.

After graduating from Saint Xavier’s, Johnson married and left for Florida. She became the mother of two children, Christine and Bryan. On returning to Warwick at the age of 30, she had her third child, Thomas. Jean reconnected with that desire to help others through her church, St. William in Norwood. The church founded the Warwick Family Shelter and Jean joined a committee overseeing the shelter.

“I was the youngest by far,” she recalls. As it turned out, she was also the most energetic. She became the leader and the doer. Johnson says she was surprised by the poverty and the homelessness she found even in a suburban community as seemingly prosperous as Warwick.

Her work went beyond Saint William. She drew in other area churches as well as Temple Am David and, with the help of the city, the shelter was able to temporarily use two homes as shelters that the Rhode Island Airport Corporation bought as part of an airport expansion. So as to separate it from its beginnings in the church community and open it to federal and municipal funding sources, the House of Hope was incorporated as a non-profit organization.

When former Mayor Francis Flaherty offered the former Spring Green School as a House of Hope shelter, Johnson and her board, headed by John Rooney, took on the challenge. The former school was converted into two apartments as well as offices for the organization.

The House of Hope grew exponentially from there. With the most recent project being the restoration of Fair House, built in the mid-1800s, and is now long-term housing for 11 homeless people. Encouraged by past president Linda Rhault beginning in 2000, the organization restored 17 Warwick properties and now has housing for more than 52 families and single adults and has enabled nine families to buy homes through its affordable homeownership program. Johnson guided the House of Hope for 27 years, the last 14 of those with her daughter, Christine Foisy, by her side.

Johnson is turning a new page in her life, although she continues to follow her passion to help others. She is a student at URI, where she is pursuing a dual track to earn bachelor’s and masters degree’s in criminal justice.

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