Michael Hitch, Founding Executive Director
4302 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70119
504.482.1135
thericc.org
At The Restoration Initiative we believe that providing an environment of hope through job training and employment can both decrease the number of youth joining gangs, reduce re-incarceration, and lower poverty ratings. The task at hand is mighty, but we are thrilled to be part of what God is doing in the city of New Orleans. The Restoration Initiative engages in four main ministries: Fleurish Industries, the Restoration Life Center, the Restoration Journey and Institute, and the Restoration Counseling Center.
Fleurish Industries develops and operates businesses to provide marketplace reconciliation through employment, job training, and life transformation mentoring. To increase individual job placement we have initiated collaborations with local businesses and developed employment training programs.
Our Restoration Life Center is home to our environment programs. Each environment allows the needs of individuals and families in our community to be holistically addressed in healthy environments. Sometimes we just want to celebrate the restoration happening in our community! At other times we need to stand together in solidarity for a cause. A few times a year we pull together all of our manpower, creativity, and resources to throw large events such as our Annual Literacy Fest and a future Film Festival. Our Restoration Life Center is the environment where families come and practice restoration and reconciliation. It is a place of catalytic change.
A Restoration Journey is not a mission trip in the sense that outsiders come in to help and save others in poor neighborhoods. Instead the experience is about recognizing that the privilege of some and the poverty of others are connected to each other through complex histories and injustices. We unpack that complexity so that we can better understand one another and reveal the poverty (spiritual, relational, etc.) and gifts in each one of us. A Restoration Journey, then, is as much a camp or a training center for formation, as it is a mission trip because we approach as learners rather than teachers. It’s from this place of recognizing our mutual brokenness that we can truly help one another. Waiting in line becomes a chance to share Jesus. Sitting through traffic becomes a quiet time. Listening to people share their story becomes a chance to encourage one another and learn a new culture and grow relationally.
The Restoration Counseling Center, started in 2011, provides Christian, wholistic, and affordable counseling for individuals, couples, and families. The Counseling Center currently employs five staff members who engage in biblically based counseling services. The center’s website features resources for pastors as well as an up-to-date blog on mental and relational health (restorationnola.com).