“For many years we prayed and dreamed of seeing our daughter conquer many of the challenges she faced. Thanks to the hours of unending love, patience, and energy that the staff has invested in her life, we have seen her achieve many of these goals. We are forever grateful to everyone at Faith Mission Home.” –Elvin and Marlene D.
Introduction.
Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Faith Mission Home serves intellectually-challenged adults and children. In addition to the 55 students, staff families and volunteers make up the 170 people who live and work here. This sprawling village holds a truck patch, farm, bakery, park, church house, school, several woodshops, a mechanic’s garage, and housing for staff, students, and guests.
The story of Faith Mission Home weaves together some of the most searing difficulties and deepest joys of human experience. Resilience, growth, and friendship have thrived in this place since its beginning in 1965.
Faith Mission Home came to Rosewood for help in creating a new website because their existing website had been designed only to showcase products crafted in their woodshop. Director Hosea Troyer said, “What we really needed was a website for informational purposes. If people were expecting to get information about FMH on our website, it wasn’t there.”
Hosea continued. “Really good things are happening at FMH. It’s a wonderful place. But a lot of people aren’t aware of what’s going on here.” The world needed to hear Faith Mission’s story.
Goals.
A good website tells a story—a story that sparks confidence in prospective clients that this organization or business has what it takes to solve their problems. Because the decision to send a child to FMH is an excruciating one for many parents, Faith Mission’s website needed to instill trust in parents’ minds.
“A lot of parents come to FMH because daily care has become too strenuous,” Ed Freed, web developer at Rosewood said. “One of our goals was to help parents feel confident about their choice to send their child to FMH. We wanted to show Faith Mission Home as a happy, healthy environment.”
Building this confidence meant telling the story with warmth and professionalism. “The new website gives people the option of looking in and seeing what’s happening here. If anybody would happen to have negative thoughts toward FMH, the website could dispel those,” Hosea explained.
Ed agreed. “FMH wanted to project a professional image as a legitimate care center.”
Because volunteers serve an average of 1½ –2 years, finding new volunteers can be a challenge. The new website needed to give prospective volunteers a clear picture of Faith Mission Home as a great place to volunteer service and grow personally. “We wanted to reveal what the program can offer the volunteers,” Ed noted.
The Process.
The project began with a consultation between Rosewood and FMH to ensure that messaging and goals for the website stayed on point. “Rosewood gave us a lot of direction on putting together the story of Faith Mission Home. They were very helpful with that,” Hosea said. Former Rosewood copywriter, Sharla Eberly, had served as a volunteer at FMH. Her insider experience brought an extra touch of authenticity to the copy. “The copywriting was done very well,” Hosea said.
Next Rosewood assembled a list of photos they needed for the website, along with a video list with details for three videos for the site. “We wanted to provide a better picture of the home. We wanted to make the website social and interactive. We wanted to create interest,” Ed said.
Challenges.
One of the main challenges was creating content that respected the privacy of individuals living at Faith Mission Home. In addition, collecting all the photos was a giant task, with the finished site including close to 300 photos.
Special features.
Several features stand out on Faith Mission Home’s new website. A newsletter archive makes all past and present newsletters available along with a place to sign up. A linked PDF tells the moving story of a family’s journey with their autistic son. Unique design features, like radial arcs in many of the main headers, make the website visually impressive. And a blog keeps the website up to date.
The blog in particular is a huge asset to FMH’s website. It allows them to post new content–whether about a trip, a party, or a Thanksgiving dinner. Their blog keeps the website relevant and fresh.
“I would recommend Rosewood because of their professional assistance. I liked the structure and how they kept things moving.”
Reflections.
Faith Mission’s website has been live since March of 2022. “We’re getting a lot of positive comments from people about it,” Hosea reported. Recently a father interested in having his son serve at FMH contacted them through the website. “Before, they could have gotten our number and called us. I think this was a bit better,” Hosea said.
Reflecting on the process, Hosea said, “I think I understand better the reason for hiring a professional company to do our website rather than just doing the best we can with a template in-house. I know that’s possible, but this was really good. . . . It forced us to take a look at the things we do here.”
“I would recommend Rosewood because of their professional assistance,” Hosea said. “I liked the structure and how they kept things moving. They asked enough questions to learn what the need was and explained things well so that I understood what was going on.”
Conclusion.
A good website doesn’t only tell a story. It invites people into that story. That’s our goal for FMH’s website. “We want this website to be able to touch people’s hearts with the magnitude of the work and the impact that Faith Mission Home is having on people’s lives,” Ed Freed said.
Is your website telling your story? Your business or organization may have the power to change someone’s life. Visit www.rosewood.us.com to learn more.