PHOTO BY EDIE LE BOUTON

Friday, August 29, 2025: One Hope NEO (Northeast Ohio), 3202 Fulton Road: Patrick Meidenbauer and Brandi Hill. Meidenbauer works with One Hope NEO to help identify integration points between organizations to maximize the impact on a region. Hill is One Hope NEO’s Community Development Program Manager.

by Edie Le Bouton

     (Plain Press October 2025) OneHope is a place that creates Hope, Trust and Relationships one event at a time.

     Located at 3167 Fulton Road, the center offers events such as tutoring and bingo night to draw people into its space. Once people are there, a tutor helps a student and gains the student’s trust. Bingo night puts strangers next to strangers, who while engaging in the fun, find out they live a few houses apart, or their kids go to the same school.

     But the real work of OneHope is putting people in the right hands to help them with whatever problem they are experiencing. It is a place that focuses on all-inclusive relationships.

     The Family Development program’s form on its website OneHopeNEO.org lets the staff know what kind of problem a family is facing and who to direct them to that will help.

     This includes finding meaningful work, healthcare, education, financial literacy, legal aid, and more.

     OneHope staff meets with the person who fills out the form to discuss what organization will help them. These meetings foster trust and create a relationship.

     Renovated properties managed by OneHope provide short-term housing for refugees, immigrants, and community members in need. In the future, they will provide tenants a rent-to-buy model to promote generational wealth. But, as Brandi Hill, Program Director, stated, “We don’t want to enter a landlord phase. It would deviate beyond our scope.”

     Patrick Meidenbauer, a board member and the foundation’s Vice President, works to develop solutions to address strategic problems related to poverty and social injustice. “We want to get people here to make them feel included, earn their trust and then see who can help them,” Meidenbauer said. “We focus on all-inclusive relationships.”

     OneHope began as Alpha Village. Father Bob Stec from Saint Ambrose Catholic Church in Brunswick, Ohio, with a few others, started Alpha Village. Around COVID, the need grew, and the group realized they were able to provide more resources by becoming a 501(c)(3), a non-profit organization. The Mejor Via Foundation, (A Better Way) was born.

     The former Ripepi Funeral Home was bought and renovated to become OneHope NEO. Their work is to serve Cleveland’s Near West Side neighborhoods by partnering with dozens of organizations that invest time and money. They are there to help multiply the impact those organizations can have on the community.

     Some of the partners OneHope works with include Global Cleveland, Jobs and Family Services, City of Cleveland, Chase Bank and Metro Health, along with many others.

     Meidenbauer said, “Many people came here needing benefit support. I contacted the County, and they sent a team from Jobs and Family Services to work out of our building.”

     “This is a good example of how we partner with experts, rather than do it ourselves,” he added.

     There are six staff members and many volunteers. They are involved in tutoring, sorting donations, event support, senior home visits, community outreach efforts, and more.

     If you live near the area and want to get involved, or if you need something, come to OneHope. It is a place that offers fun, improvement, and builds connections to the community. It is a place that creates Hope, Trust and Relationships.