Our House is pleased to announce the launch of our 30 for the 30^th Campaign! In March of 2018, Our House will celebrate its 30^th Anniversary. That’s 30 years of changing lives and building self-sustaining families. Throughout 2018 we’ll be asking our supporters to give one particular item a month with a goal of getting 30 of each item a month. In the alternative we are asking our supporters to pledge to give $30 a month for the year of our 30^th Anniversary.

January – Size 5 Diapers

February – 9 oz & 5 oz Baby Bottles

March – Pull-ups

April – Disinfecting Wipes

May – Infant Supplies (Yogurt melts, puffs snacks, stage 2 fruits and veggies)

June – Baby wipes

July – Boys’ underwear (2T-4T)

August – School supplies (construction paper, crayons, safety scissors, paint, etc)

September – Exam gloves

October – Tissues

November – Hand soap

December – Paper towels

Michele Brown, lead Pre-K teacher at Our House’s Decatur location, is full of energy. With a ready grin and an engaging laugh, she seems perfect for the role of making learning fun for her students. And that’s her goal. She says her mission is to get her students to understand that “school is a fun place, learning can be fun.” She sits in her classroom surrounded by colorful selections of the children’s artwork, the Smart Board they use for lessons, and toys in bins labeled in both Spanish and English. She seems perfectly at home here in this sunlit classroom. But this teacher who seems built for the classroom didn’t start out planning to enter the teaching field.

Michele is from a small town in rural Indiana and started college at Kansas State with her major undecided. She took a variety of classes from a wide range of fields and didn’t think about education until a friend suggested that it might be a good fit for her because of what a wonderful mom she was to her young daughter. Based on that suggestion, Michele took an exploratory education class that had her in a classroom three days a week for 16 weeks. At the end of the class, the teacher she had been assigned to said, “You’ve got it. You know how to connect with kids.”

After that experience and finishing school, Michele realized that teaching was not so much a career as a calling. She said she felt called to work in low-income communities, especially with students who struggle with learning. “I’m going to be that teacher for all the kids who struggled, for all the kids who don’t get it, all the kids that weren’t straight A honor students,” she says, her face serious. She recounts her own experience in 11^th grade where a math teacher belittled her in front of the entire class. “That’s why I teach. That’s why I do what I do.” She also has a special place in her heart for the children Our House serves; children from families experiencing homelessness. She says, “This is the greatest area where we can make the biggest difference.”

In her third year of teaching at Our House, Michele has taught Georgia Pre-K for a whopping fifteen years. And all that experience has paid off. This year, she was a finalist for Georgia Pre-K teacher of the year. It was a grueling process that included writing essays, submitting a video of her teaching a lesson, and participating in an in-person interview. Even though she made it through an intense competition and had her teaching skills recognized state-wide, she still makes it clear that the work she does wouldn’t be possible without Britney Michel, her assistant teacher and a graduate of Our House’s job training program. She refers to Britney as her co-teacher and says that they’re on the same page in terms of what they should be doing every day. “It’s like, let’s just go in, let’s do what’s best for the kids, make it fun for them, give them a great experience, so that they equate school with happiness and joy,” she says. Britney nods in the background while cutting out construction paper shapes for the day ahead.

When asked whether she feels like she has made a difference in the lives of the children at Our House, Michele is brimming with pride and success stories. She talks about a little girl whose mother didn’t even have her GED and how that same mom now has a GED, her trucker’s license and drives a bus for the DeKalb county school district. That little girl, “Deja,” is now in accelerated classes in elementary school. Then there’s the story of a little boy, “Moses,” who was living in a safe house with his mother and siblings after fleeing from domestic violence. Moses is now in kindergarten and his standardized test scores are the highest in the kindergarten school-wide. Michele acknowledges that it can be challenging to work with children who have experienced such trauma but is still filled with hope about their potential.

“They have to feel safe, they have to feel like you love them. [I]f they feel like you care, they’ll learn from you. So you never know which of these children may do great things. You gotta have that experience of someone showing you some compassion and love.”

And when she’s asked what she likes most about working at Our House, Ms. Brown doesn’t hesitate. “Our mission,” she says, followed by, “the families we serve.”

Bobby Cagle, Director of the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) visited Our House and read to the Pre-K classroom for Georgia Pre-K Week. We thoroughly enjoyed hosting Director Cagle and we are grateful to him for spending time with the children. Our House would also like to congratulate Director Cagle on his appointment to lead the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Director Cagle has been a positive force for protecting children in Georgia.

Our shelter renovation has begun! Plans for the shelter renovation have been finalized and permits obtained. Construction began on September 7, 2017. Our House will demolish the existing shared bathrooms and replace them with private bathrooms in 14 of the 18 residential units. The four rooms that will not have private bathrooms will be short-term stay rooms – families will be able to move into other rooms when they become available. Two shared bathrooms will remain, for use by residents in the four short-term rooms. Renovations will take place in phases in order to minimize disruption to services provided. The renovation will take an estimated six months to complete, and we do not anticipate that the project will cause a significant reduction in our service level.

Our House established a board committee to guide the renovation project, which includes professionals in the construction industry. We also engaged award-winning construction management firm Silverman Construction, which has recently won a number of accolades for their involvement in the Ponce City Market project. In addition to our recent classroom renovations in Atlanta, Silverman managed Our House’s renovation project that added a new wing to our Decatur location, which was completed in 2009. Silverman Construction has a unique perspective on the needs of our clients and on our needs as a nonprofit partner.

The trauma of homelessness causes negative social, emotional, and health consequences to adults and children. By adding private bathrooms and restoring a sense of privacy, dignity, and normalcy to the lives of the families we serve, we expect better physical and mental health outcomes as families work through the traumatic experience of homelessness, and an easier transition to mainstream housing. We are pleased to further align our program with best practices in human service delivery in order to provide the best experience possible for the families in our care. The construction supervisor is currently estimating that the first phase will be done in December with the second phase wrapping up in February.

On August 31, 2017, the Our House Decatur Pre-K received a very special visit from Amy M. Jacobs, Commissioner of Bright From the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. Commissioner Jacobs spoke to Linda Stouffer of WSB-TV about the importance of Georgia’s Pre-K program and spent some time playing and interacting with our children. Our Pre-K children benefit so much from having positive interactions with so many adults who want to see them succeed.

With almost 350 guests in attendance, Our House’s benefit gala generated more than $215,000 –nearly 15% more than the goal! The program started off with a welcome by the night’s emcee and advisory council member, Jovita Moore. Board Chair, Aaron Danzig, introduced advisory council member and gala honoree, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, and presented her with an award for her service and dedication to Our House.

After Cushman’s remarks, Our House President and CEO, Tyese Lawyer, made brief remarks and attendees viewed a moving video presentation about the impact of Our House (view below). The live auction and fund-a-need drew spirited participation and contributed to the success of the evening.

Our House Board Member, Ellen Persons, had this to say about the event, “Having attended the Our House Gala for six years now, I can say that last night was far and away the best event yet. The space was magnificent, food was delicious, it was a great turnout, and the enthusiasm was spectacular,” which sums up the evening quite well!

Our House would like to extend a special thank you to all of our gala sponsors, patrons and hosts. We also want to recognize the Gala Chair, Vickie Hunter, and the entire Gala Committee for their hard work.  We invite you to join us next year as we celebrate 30 years of service to our community and honor community leader Stephanie Blank.

Check out the Gala video presentation below:

2017 Gala Video from Tyese Lawyer on Vimeo.

Our House CEO, Tyese Lawyer, and the chairman of the Board of Directors Marketing Committee, Marti Walsh, had a great conversation with Christine Pullara of Atlanta & Company on November 16 to discuss Our House’s new look and our opportunity to match gifts up to $10,000 on Georgia Gives Day. Check out the video for all the details!

ATLANTA – October 28, 2016 – The Balser Professional Advisors Council’s giving circle has announced a $25,000 grant to Our House, a nonprofit organization that offers children and families experiencing homelessness the tools, support, and education they need to thrive. The grant was made after the group heard funding pitches from three nonprofit organizations that had been selected via a diligent vetting process.

Our House CEO, Tyese Lawyer, answers questions during the presentation at the Community Foundation.

The Balser Professional Advisors Council is a network of professional advisors including accountants, wealth managers and estate attorneys who have demonstrated an interest in philanthropy, both personally and professionally.  The group is a joint program of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and United Way of Greater Atlanta to provide opportunities for education, knowledge sharing and networking.

Our House works to break the chains of homelessness by providing quality early childhood education and comprehensive support to families experiencing homelessness. Our House will apply the grant to facility renovations that will include private bathrooms for families to use.

“During the pitch, the group was struck by the fact that families in shelters often don’t have much private space, including restroom facilities,” said Christy Eckoff, director of gift planning for the Community Foundation. “Something we take for granted in our own homes is a luxury to families experiencing homelessness. The group was pleased to be able to contribute to making Our House feel more like a home.”

Prior to making their pitch to the council, representatives from Our House and selected other nonprofits received presentation training from the Center for Civic Innovation. Their training included a seven-hour workshop on pitching techniques plus individual coaching sessions that were sponsored by the council.

The Balser Professional Advisors Council giving circle is a way for council participants to learn more about their community and the challenges faced by local residents. Members pool funding in order to make a collective grant to nonprofits, allowing for a more significant, collective contribution.

This year, the group decided to make an impact on the issue of the opportunity gap. According to Harvard and Berkley research about the metro Atlanta region, a person born in the lowest economic quartile here has just a four percent chance of reaching the uppermost economic quartile in his or her lifetime. Through the giving circle, members explored this issue, took a tour of our region to see select nonprofits doing good work for the community and worked collectively to develop a list of nonprofits addressing the issue for consideration of their grant.