About the Hope and Inspiration Project
A better future is possible. We're a community nonprofit rooted in Springfield, VT — and we believe every neighbor deserves to be seen.
How this started
Fr. Mircea Geana travelled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and saw first-hand the impact of the Neighborhood Resilience Project and St. Moses the Black parish in that community. What he found there was not a charity handing things down to a neighborhood. It was a neighborhood organizing itself around dignity and service — people who had been through hard things becoming the ones who showed up for everyone else.
That experience planted the seed for the Hope and Inspiration Project here in Springfield. Vermont's hardships are quieter than a city's, but they are not smaller: food insecurity, isolation, and houses that are slowly failing around the people living in them. We started as an attempt to answer those needs the same way — by building relationships first, and letting the practical help grow out of them.
The Hope and Inspiration Project grew out of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, and we say that plainly because it's true. Our doors and our programs are open to absolutely everyone. Nobody is asked what they believe before they are handed a box of food or helped with a roof.
Rooted in the Gospel and teachings of the Orthodox Church, the mission of the Hope and Inspiration Project is to instill hope in our community by providing material, psychological, and spiritual support, empowering others to be agents of change in their community.
To breathe life into the community and reveal the strength and creativity inherent in the people, which will support a movement of resilient healing through peer leadership, relationship building, and tangible support.
Our values
Who's running this
Fr. Mircea is the founder of the Hope and Inspiration Project and the priest of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Springfield. After seeing what a community in Pittsburgh had built for itself around dignity and mutual care, he came home determined to try the same thing in Vermont. He leads the organization's work and can usually be found wherever the actual work is happening.
Board of directors
- Thomas Barton · President
- Jon Hoover · Vice President
- Heather Barton · Secretary
- Georgia Collard · Treasurer
- Fr. Mircea Geana
- Mat. Sarah Geana
- Sara Langseth
Come be part of it
There's a place here for whatever you have to offer — time, skills, or support.