Our Youth Homes Update on The Welcome Home Campaign
In the fall of 2021, Youth Homes proudly launched the Welcome Home campaign as an initiative to restore the organizations four residential foster homes. With a vision to update, repair, and rejuvenate these structures, we invited sponsors, donors and community members to make a prominent difference in the lives of underserved youth.
Tim Byrd, our new CEO, spurred on our efforts and contributed to the great success of the campaign. Here at Youth Homes, we were deeply touched by the number of people and establishments who rose to the challenge and came together to the benefit of our youth.
The community generously helped us achieve the $350K needed to fulfill the full scope of our campaign, and we were ecstatic to be able to get to work in early 2022. We’ve kept tabs on our progress, and we’re excited to share the scope of what has been fulfilled so far!
A Reminder or Our Mission and Vision
For years, our youth and staff have lived in four residential homes with leaky plumbing, broken cooling systems, and even drafty windows. Although we are thankful for the ability to house and take care of our youth, repairs on the structures were past due.
In fact, during heavy rain, Cherry Lane, one of our residential homes, would flood. This earned the building the nickname “Cherry Lake”. In addition to much-needed repairs, each home was in great need of fresh paint, new flooring, and lighting updates to make the structures feel more inviting and cozy.
We knew that investing in our homes would mean also investing in our Bay Area youth in need. In order for teens in our care to believe in their own self-worth and potential, our Youth Homes team knew that we needed to provide more than run-down and shabby living spaces.
Through the Welcome Home campaign, it is our mission to provide our foster kids the space they deserve to come home to. It takes a village to raise foster kids; as such we calculated that it would take around $350K for us to achieve the renovations needed. Starting with these homes it is our vision to instill a sense of confidence, self-love and pride in the youth we care for.
In the last five month, our dedicated in-house team has focused on the expansive “honey-do” list for the Welcome Home campaign. So far, we have accomplished:
East Bay Shelter
Interior Painted
Appliances Upgraded
Furniture Replaced
Backyard Remodeled
Anderson House
New flooring installed
Interiors Painted
Lighting Upgraded
Stucco Repaired
Exterior Painted
Landscaping started
Toilets Replaced
Cherry Lane
HVAC Installed
New Flooring Installed
Interior Painted
Exterior Painted
Electrical Upgraded
Sump Pump Repaired
Gutters Replaced
Siding Repaired
Window and Sliders Replaced
Pryor House
Roof quotes received
Exterior Framing quotes received
We believe in celebrating our achieved milestones and using those success to propel us into the next round of projects. While we’ve already completed many of the promised renovations, there is still quite a bit of work to be done.
As the youth we house are our top priority, we are dedicated to making each living space into a true home. Backed by the support of our community, we are confident in our ability to finish the job and excited to see the finished outcome in the near future.
Challenges We’ve Overcome
Over the past five months, we’ve faced challenge after challenge while completing work on our Youth Homes Houses. As you may know, many industries have been severely impacted by the pandemic when it comes to manufacturing and shipping supplies.
Furthermore, labor and construction costs have skyrocketed. According to a study reported on NBCDFW, “2021’s costs were also more than 23% higher than pre-pandemic 2019”. We felt this increase as we began our work in addition to the disrupted supply and distribution chains on supplies we needed to complete the projects.
Before we started renovating, we knew that the initial $350K was an estimated starting point for the work. As we removed the gutters at Cherry Lane, hidden rot was exposed. The repairs at Anderson House also revealed structural issues that had gone unnoticed before the campaign. In addition, regrading the driveway at Cherry Lane and pouring new concrete is projected to send us over our initial budget.
Despite these setbacks and extra expenses, we have pushed forward to complete as many of the renovations as possible since the beginning of the year. There is still work to be completed but, with the help of our Bay Area community, we are confident that we will achieve our mission and fulfill our vision.
Our Local Heroes
We are thankful for the unbelievable generosity of our community regarding our Welcome Home campaign. Remarkably, we have witnessed a high level of dedication and hard work from volunteers to help us complete many projects that would have cost extra money if we had been required to hire assistance.
Committed volunteers painted, gardened, and even completed some of the repairs on our "honey-do" list. Our Youth Homes team is grateful for the amount of time and money we were able to save through the bountiful aid we received. Now, we can contribute more money towards projects that would have otherwise been deferred.
Our community business partners have also greatly contributed by donating large quantities of supplies and valuable services. Sherwin Williams donated paint for the interior and exterior of Cherry Lane. While Cresco allowed us to rent essential equipment for free, Dolans provided wooden window trim at no cost.
To our partners, donors, volunteers, and contractors, we want to thank you for your generous donation of time, money, and resources. You've come together as community heroes to bring a sense of strength and stability to the lives of our youth. This is the first time many of them have lived in a safe and secure space.
Full Steam Ahead
Although we have accomplished quite a bit, it is still full steam ahead of the Welcome Home campaign! We still have projects to check off of our list, but we are proud of our extensive progress and unrelenting in our commitment to meeting our goals.
We couldn't have completed so much so soon without your help, and we are looking forward to continuing to work together as a community to fulfill our promise to our youth. Check out our website for more information about how you can become a supporter, or feel free to Contact Us at any time!
