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

AmeriCorps Adventures: Making a Difference for Pittsburgh Homeowners

AmeriCorps Adventures: Making a Difference for Pittsburgh Homeowners

One of the primary advantages to living in Minnesota is that pretty much every place else is warmer in January.  So, when I learned that this year’s Martin Luther King work week was going to be held in Pittsburgh, I was actually pretty excited.  Not only was this going to be an opportunity to meet up with the rest my AmeriCorps class, many of whom I hadn’t seen since our August orientation, but it was also a chance to explore “America’s Most Liveable City.”

The first night in Pittsburgh, we got our assignments and teams for the weeks.   I was pleased to see that I would be at the same home the whole week.  We were going to be painting, hanging drywall, replacing flooring, and making other fairly light cosmetic repairs.  When we got to the home, things changed.  What was originally supposed to be a fairly limited workscope, expanded to include replacing the entire kitchen.  We were only able to fit about four people in the kitchen at once, so the whole task was pretty daunting.  Fortunately, the Rebuilding Together affiliate in Pittsburgh had done a great job of recruiting skilled volunteers to help out at each home, so we worked under the watchful eye of Donnie, our Team Leader.  While we were working in the kitchen, the other half of our team was upstairs.  We had to replace the floor, fix the ceiling in the stairwell, and paint the hall and entryway.  Between all of us, we made pretty short work of that.

By the end of the week, the entire kitchen from the baseboards to the ceiling was new: new paint, new sink, new stove, new cabinets, and a new floor.  The upstairs looked fantastic.  It was also a great opportunity to see how the Pittsburgh affiliate pulled together that many projects.  Together, the AmeriCorps members completed a dozen home repair projects that week.  As we get ready for National Rebuilding Day, this experience will be helpful as we get our projects lined up for April 28th.

To me, the most impressive thing about the entire project was the way the team worked together to make sure the work got finished, but also to make sure that nobody got too burned out.  These were full days, and the work was not easy.  But each member of the team made sure that everyone’s spirits stayed high.  There were jokes, snacks, Beyonce, and power tools.  All in all, it was a great way to reunite with the August class of AmeriCorps members and meet the January class.

By Alex Rosselli, AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinator

AmeriCorps Adventures: Rebuilding Together National Conference

As November approached, most people had turkey on their minds.  I was thinking about gumbo.   Between November 10th and 12th, members of Rebuilding Together affiliates from across the country gathered in New Orleans for our National Conference.  Most people flew.  The three AmeriCorps members in the Twin Cities opted to drive.  This decision forced us to confront a lot of big issues: Will our friendship survive? Interstates or byways?  What music should we bring?  Where is the nearest Waffle House?

We agreed that we didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to follow US-61 along the Mississippi River.   So, early on Tuesday morning, we rolled out of St. Paul and headed south.  During the weeks leading up to the departure date, the three of us had been compiling a playlist of songs to keep us pumped.  The final product included cuts by James Brown, The Temptations, Johnny Cash, Robert Johnson, as well as other tunes that would keep us dancing through the entire state of Mississippi – which they did.

We had only two planned stops along the way.  The first was St. Louis, where we would spend the night and pick up another Rebuilding Together AmeriCorps member.  The second was Memphis, mostly for the music and barbecue.  And boy, Memphis did not disappoint.  We found a place where – for $3.85 – I got what was perhaps the best pulled pork sandwich on the planet.   After spending the afternoon walking around Beale Street, we piled into the car and continued on our way.

We pulled into New Orleans late Wednesday night, and the next morning we made a bee line for Café du Monde and beignets.   After eating our fill of deep-fried dough covered in approximately three pounds of powdered sugar, we headed back to the hotel for the start of the Conference.  We tried to split up, so that we could attend as many different sessions as possible.  Some of the topics covered at the sessions I attended were engaging the faith-based community, lessons learned from the recovery efforts in New Orleans, rebuilding a neighborhood, and my personal favorite, service learning as a creative partnership, presented by Rebuilding Together Twin Cities’ very own Dave Christensen and Dunwoody College of Technology’s Heather Gay.

Throughout the Conference, we had the opportunity to meet several special guests, including Mary Landrieu, U.S. Senator from Louisiana; General Russell Honoré, the commander in charge of coordinating military relief efforts in New Orleans immediately after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; and Congressman Cedric Richmond, who represents much of New Orleans.

While driving back to Minnesota, we stopped for dinner in a small town in West-Central Mississippi.  What appeared to be just another small southern town – with great po’ boys, by the way – was actually the birthplace of one of my childhood idols.  It wasn’t until I googled the Town of Leland, Mississippi, that I realized it was the birthplace of Kermit the Frog and Jim Henson.  We could have included “It Ain’t Easy Being Green” on our roadtrip soundtrack, and we missed the chance.

All told, we racked up 2,481 miles, 45 hours in the car, and eight states.  Needless to say, friendships survived, waffles were consumed, and really great connections were made between affiliates.  The next time the AmeriCorps members will be together will be for the work week in Pittsburgh to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.   So, tune in next month, folks….

Written By:  Alex Rosselli, AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinator

Welcome New AmeriCorps Members!

We are proud to welcome three new AmeriCorps members to the Rebuilding Together Twin Cities team: Lisa Berglund, Alex Rosselli and Tyler White.

Lisa, AmeriCorps Project Coordinator, will be responsible for managing our home repair projects from start to finish, including previewing the home, developing a workscope, creating a budget, identifying volunteer and material resources needed to complete the home repairs, and supervising the work. Lisa holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan and recently received a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and Design from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.  She has also held several internships and has volunteered for various organizations.

Alex, AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinator, will be responsible for recruiting, training, coordinating and retaining volunteers to provide critical home repairs for the homeowners we serve.  Alex recently received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Macalester College in St. Paul.  He has worked on several political campaigns and has experience recruiting and supervising volunteers.  Alex is passionate about affordable housing, education and economic development.

Tyler, AmeriCorps Safe at Home Coordinator, will be responsible for managing all aspects of our Safe at Home program.  Tyler recently received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern Maine. While earning his degree, Tyler worked for the Home Depot, gaining valuable experience and knowledge about home repair and construction.  Tyler also has experience both as a volunteer and an intern for various nonprofit organizations.

Rebuilding Together, Inc. currently has 66 AmeriCorps members serving in 30 Rebuilding Together Affiliates in 20 states. The goal of the CapacityCorps program is to build the capacity of grassroots Rebuilding Together programs so they can be more sustainable, effective, and efficient in helping homeowners in need. This is the fourth year that Rebuilding Together has been awarded an AmeriCorps grant through the Corporation for National and Community Service.