REPAIRING HOMES, TRANSFORMING LIVES

ASP provides one of the most rewarding structured service opportunities in the nation — bringing thousands of volunteers from around the country to rural Central Appalachia to repair homes for low-income families.

 

Since 1969, we’ve made homes warmer, safer, and drier(R) for families and provided transformational service experiences for volunteers.  Last year, 16,231 volunteers served with ASP, providing critical repairs for 493 families and constructing over 60 new homes.

 

OUR MISSION

Appalachia Service Project is a Christian ministry, open to all people, that inspires hope and service through volunteer home repair and replacement in Central Appalachia.

 

OUR VISION

Appalachia Service Project envisions the eradication of substandard housing in Central Appalachia and the transformation of everyone who comes in contact with this ministry.

 

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• We believe that each person is a child of God imbued with dignity and worth.

• We accept people right where they are and just the way they are.

• We believe that all people should be able to live in affordable, safe, and sanitary housing.

• We are committed to witness through the good quality of our work and careful stewardship of our resources.

• We believe God calls people to serve others as volunteer partners in ministry and we will encourage their growth in faith as they answer this call.

• Where ASP is involved in local communities we will encourage, affirm, and support the fair and just treatment of people.

• We believe in ministering in the spirit of love, acceptance, and hopefulness.

 

OUR HISTORY

Poverty, Potential and a Preacher named Tex

In 1969, Rev. Glenn “Tex” Evans — a United Methodist minister — became one of the first people to connect the energy of youth with the deep needs of the poor.

 

During Tex’s 13 years as director at Henderson Settlement in Frakes, Kentucky, he witnessed the great need for home repair assistance. So as part of his already-thriving outreach to the people of Appalachia, he recruited 50 teens and adult volunteers to repair homes in Barbourville, Kentucky. They worked on-site during the day and worshiped in the evenings. By summer’s end, four families had safe, warm homes for the winter, fifty young lives had been changed forever — and a longstanding legacy was born.

 

But Tex was more than a leader; he was a born motivator. A true student of Appalachian culture and a legendary storyteller, he set the tone for what ASP is today: an extended family where laughter is king. Where relationships matter. And where changing the lives of families and volunteers alike is the highest priority of all.

 

“We accept people right where they are, just the way they are.”

Our philosophy of service has remained the same since our founding: ASP encourages people to act responsibly in the face of human need and injustice.

 

By transforming faith into ASP service, volunteers respond to a specific need: housing. By putting aside their own needs and desires, ASP volunteers free themselves to share talent, love, and concern with the people of Appalachia and with one another. More important than construction know-how is a willingness to enter the communities and homes of Central Appalachia with sensitivity, concern, and love — accepting people right where they are and just the way they are.

 

50 Years of Service: ASP Today

Since 1969, 393,643 volunteers from across the nation have repaired 17,866 homes and, in the process, Appalachian families, volunteers, and staff have been immeasurably blessed.

 

Today, with the help of more than 16,000 volunteers each year, our goal remains to make homes warmer, safer and drier for families in need. Yet ASP is more than a home repair program. It also provides a unique framework that fosters transformational experiences for volunteers, families served, and staff — by building relationships with each other that break down cultural, social and economic barriers. We often hear of significant life changes resulting from the ASP experience: of families renewing their faith in the goodness of others, of people newly motivated to continue their education, of young adults choosing careers of service. No one walks away from the ASP experience unchanged. The results are truly amazing!