Help Us Win a $50,000 Makeover for the American Indian Family Center!

YOU can help us win a $50,000 makeover for the American Indian Family Center in St. Paul!  Rebuilding Together partnered with Maxwell House to select ten community houses across the country.  The three community houses that receive the most votes between now and June 8th will receive a $50,000 makeover.

The vision of the American Indian Family Center is to be the place Where American Indian Families Thrive!  This is accomplished by providing American Indian families with programs and services enriched by traditional American Indian values and culture.  They focus their efforts on ensuring the development of healthy children, strengthening the family, keeping families together and making communities healthy and strong.  The $50,000 makeover would upgrade the facilities in order to create an even more functional and inviting space for the people that the Center serves.

Please vote for the American Indian Family Center every day from April 24th until June 8th at www.maxwellhouse.com.  If you would like to receive daily emails reminding you to vote, please email Michaela at m.brown@rebuildingtogether-twincities.org.

National Rebuilding Day Was a Huge Success!

Thanks again to the hundreds of volunteers who braved the rain to help 25 families in need on April 28th for National Rebuilding Day!  Thanks to your efforts, we were able to help homeowners like Erin, a proud owner of her Camden Neighborhood home.  Erin’s grandson recently began living with her, and because of the expense of taking care of him, she is not able to afford repairs to her home.  In her thank you note to the volunteers who worked with her, Erin wrote, “Thank you for allowing my house to become more of a home.”

We would also like to thank U.S. Senator Al Franken, who came out to meet volunteers and one of the homeowners we helped that day, as well as MN Housing Commissioner Mary Tingerthal, State Senator Linda Higgins, State Representative Bobby Joe Champion, Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels, and Rebecca Lucero from Congressman Keith Ellison’s office.

Finally, we would like to thank our sponsors and partners for National Rebuilding Day, including Wells Fargo, Builders Association of the Twin Cities Foundation, Honeywell, MidCountry Bank, US Bank, On Site Sanitation, Valspar, Catholic United Financial, Lowe’s, Caribou Coffee, Subway, CitiCargo & Storage, Target, The Big Day of Serving, Dunwoody College of Technology, Tree Trust, Mortenson Construction, Ironwood Carpentry, Neighborhood Improvement Program, American Public Media, Coca-Cola, Cookie Cart, Webster/Windsor Insulation and ABC Supply Company.

Design Choices Can Empower Homeowners

Rebuilding Together’s vision is “to provide a safe and healthy home for every person,” which covers some pretty important ground. The work we do with our Safe at Home program allows seniors and individuals living with disabilities to live independently without fear of injury in their home. Similarly, our Home Repair program addresses safety issues like faulty plumbing, damaged stairs or broken windows, to name a few.

One feature of our work that is often overlooked is that in the process of making these critical repairs, we also end up helping homeowners to make some exciting design decisions. Although flooring, wall colors or window styles aren’t a matter of life and death, they can play a big part in creating a home that is unique and comfortable. Several sponsors, including Lowe’s and Valspar, have made it possible for our homeowners to express themselves and their families through cosmetics.

For many homeowners, the initial sight of an entire flooring or paint swatch book presents them with an almost overwhelming number of options. Where to start? What do I want it to look like? How can my home become more “me”? What begins as a challenge usually becomes an empowering exercise with exciting results as a homeowner decides what look really speaks to their personality and brings comfort to their home.

I recall one homeowner that was going to have nearly the entire interior of her home repainted, since the paint on the walls was over 20 years old. When it came time to choose colors, the site of Valpar’s swatch book with over a thousand colors almost seemed to bring on panic! Realizing that she needed a little bit more time to feel comfortable with her decisions, our Construction Supervisor Dave suggested that we leave the book with her overnight. When we got to the office the next morning, there was an energetic voicemail from her with a list of all the colors she wanted and where they would go. The colors were ordered and a group of volunteers painted them on her walls. At the end of the day, her home was filled with bright colors and a proud homeowner. Instances where choosing new tiles or a new wall color have completely changed the way a homeowner feels in their home are truly countless.

As a source of consistency and comfort, the home and its condition can be very influential on the lives of those within it. The ability to make decisions about how it looks or feels is one of Rebuilding Together’s greatest gifts, its effects reaching far beyond aesthetics. These choices allow homeowners to feel pride in their space and claim ownership through self-expression. One homeowner that we helped who had inherited the home he grew up in said: “When the outside was painted, that wasn’t my parents’ choice. That wasn’t their color. So now it feels like my decision. It feels like my personality. My color…You know, it feels like me now.”

 

By Lisa Berglund, AmeriCorps Project Coordinator

We Want to Thank YOU!

This week is Volunteer Appreciation Week, and we’d like to thank all of our amazing volunteers for their hard work throughout the year.  Last year, 665 volunteers donated more than 6,600 hours of time to help homeowners in need.  Thanks to your efforts, we are able to repair 24 homes through our Home Repair program, make safety and accessibility modifications to 50 homes through our Safe at Home program and renovate and repair three nonprofit facilities.  All together, we served a total of 720 people last year.  THANK YOU!