Ashley Hickman is a community‑centered leader whose life has been shaped by service, compassion, and a deep commitment to showing up for people in real‑life situations. Long before she founded Grounds of Hope, Ashley spent years offering food, essentials, and encouragement to individuals experiencing homelessness during her daily CTA commutes across Chicago. These small, consistent acts of care became the foundation for something much larger.

Ashley’s introduction to community development began in high school, when she participated in a planning and development program with the Metropolitan Planning Council. This early experience exposed her to the realities of urban planning, neighborhood needs, and the importance of designing systems that support people where they are. It planted the first seed of her desire to build something meaningful for the Far South Side.

Her commitment to service deepened during her time at North Park University, where she served with the University Ministry Department on mission trips to Los Angeles, California, and Oaxaca, Mexico. In Los Angeles, she supported outreach efforts in underserved neighborhoods, distributing meals and resources to individuals facing extreme poverty. In Oaxaca, she worked closely with children and families in orphanage settings, offering hands‑on care and presence to communities with limited access to basic needs. These experiences taught her that service must be consistent, compassionate, and rooted in dignity.

Ashley later spent a full year in a community‑based fellowship on the West Side of Chicago, where she experienced intentional living firsthand. During this year, she lived and worked closely with a nonprofit organization, gaining a broader understanding of nonprofit operations, community engagement, and the realities of serving vulnerable populations. She worked alongside grant writers, individual donors, supporters, marketing teams, and volunteer engagement staff — learning how nonprofits build trust, communicate impact, and sustain their work. This fellowship gave her a deeper sense of discipline, structure, and purpose, and it shaped her understanding of what it truly means to build a mission from the inside out.

Ashley is now working to bring that calling to life through Grounds of Hope Community Care and Grounds of Hope Coffee Co., two interconnected efforts she is actively building from the ground up. The café is the first step — a social‑enterprise designed to generate sustainable funding for an even bigger vision: a 24‑hour support system for individuals experiencing severe homelessness, especially those who cannot overcome their circumstances without consistent help. Many of the people Ashley serves do not fit into traditional transitional housing or supportive programs — not because they don’t deserve care, but because these systems were never built for individuals who have been without support for years. Her model is designed for them: the overlooked, the long‑term unhoused, the people who fall through every crack.

Ashley is creating a system that meets people exactly where they are, offering meals, hygiene items, infant essentials, and emergency support around the clock. This is not a distant dream — it is a mission she is shaping, developing, and bringing into reality piece by piece.

Her leadership is grounded in three core beliefs:

– Service is something you build with your hands and your heart. 
– Every person deserves dignity, no matter their circumstances. 
– Hope becomes real when we bring it to life together.

Through Grounds of Hope, Ashley is actively creating a future where care is accessible 24 hours a day, where no one is turned away, and where hope is not just a word — it’s something you can feel, receive, and rely on.