ROOF participates in Community Forum on Affordable Housing

Co-president Susanne Cameron represented ROOF at a community forum, "Three Approaches to Community Affordable Housing." Joining her were Ed Cameron, Newburyport City Councillor at Large, and the Associate Executive Director of the Division of Housing and Homeless Services of Community Teamwork, Inc., and Andrew DeFranza, Executive Director of Harborlight Community Partners, which provides housing with services primarily for low and moderate income people living in Southern Essex County. Susanne talked about ROOF's mission and target clients, stimulating lots of questions - including how to volunteer and support ROOF!

Newburyport Five Cents Savings Donates to ROOF

Newburyport, MA:  Roof Over Head Collaborative (ROOF), a non-profit organization providing housing and services for families in transition, today welcomed a generous donation from The Newburyport Bank.  ROOF is currently fundraising to secure its fourth property to provide a local family with dependent children with a roof over their heads while they take part in a program to help them regain financial independence.

 
Newburyport Five Cents Savings Charitable Foundation awarded a grant in the amount of $6000 to ROOF to assist them in purchasing their next property in Amesbury, Salisbury or Newburyport.  Jan Morse, president and CEO of the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, was pleased to contribute to this worthy cause.  “The economic situation of the last four years has touched us all of course, but has left some families in our local area on the brink.  We are pleased to assist in providing families with children a secure environment on their way to regaining financial independence while keeping their children in school.”

 “We have learned so much as an organization with our first properties and are pleased to see that our concept works and we are able to help these families in need,” said Kerri Perry, ROOF co-chairperson.  “With this gift from the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, we have started fundraising for our next property and have a volunteer army in place to invest the “sweat equity” as well,” she continued.

Susanne Cameron, ROOF co-chair, noted, “The down economy has impacted low income families in Massachusetts and driven many into crisis.  A medical issue, a job loss, a cut in hours, or lack of transportation will drive a family from a relatively stable environment into potential homelessness.  We are grateful to the Newburyport Bank for their gift to help us serve them.”

ROOF welcomes donations of money, volunteer time, renovation skills and property to continue their works.  To learn more about ROOF, please visit our website at www.RoofOverHead.org, email us at info@RoofOverHead.org or call 978.961.1555.

The mission of ROOF Over Head Collaborative is to provide transitional housing for families in need in Amesbury, Newburyport and Salisbury. ROOF collaborates with a support services partner to empower children and their families so their lives can be lived with dignity, ending the frightening reality of homelessness. Families pay a portion of the rent while maintaining an active status with the support services partner working to improve their education, job training, and other skills to help them to get up and out of crisis.  To learn more about ROOF or to make a donation of time or money, please visit our webpage at RoofOverHead.org or info@RoofOverHead.org.

About Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank:

 

Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank is a growing community bank, with six locations and has over 90 dedicated employees. The bank provides its customers a full range of consumer, residential and commercial lending and business banking products and services. We also take great pride in supporting the many diverse social, educational, environmental, civic and cultural community based organizations to ensure that the greater Newburyport area is a vibrant place to live, work and grow.  Giving back is the best way forward.

To learn more please visit www.newburyportbank.com

Central Congregational Church Donates to ROOF

The Reverend Christopher Ney of Newburyport’s Central Congregational Church gives a donation of $1000 to members of Roof Over Head Collaborative’s board members, Jo An Kincaid, Joyce Munier and Kerri Perry. The donation was one of several from the church to local charities as a part of their Outreach Tithe from their capital campaign.

News from the ROOF Tops, 2011 Year-end

What a year for ROOF!  Our dedicated Board came together to create and implement a program to house and support at-risk families in our community.  Our site-selection committee searched and found two properties that ROOF purchased and one where we collaborated with a local landlord and leased.  Our Fundraising Committee, led by Harvey and Norma Beit, inspired local businesses, institutions and members of our community who donated to our organization, allowing us to carry out our mission.  After 2+ years of hard work and inspiration, in December, Harvey and Norma offered the Board their resignations.  We will miss them dearly.  

The Port Follies

Roof Over Head presented its first annual fundraising and awareness-raising event on Friday, October 21, 2011, at The Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport.  ROOF provided a night for the public to see the other side of our local candidates running for election in November.  Candidates proved that their talents go far beyond policy-making in  The Port Follies: A Politically Incorrect Variety Show.  Local notables, John Macone, Editor of The Daily News, and Ann Ormand, President of the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce, served as emcees, entertaining the audience and introducing the talent.  Local musicians dazzled the audience with beautiful music.

The Institution for Savings, Stoneridge Properties, Strem Chemical and iMarc all served as event sponsors.  The Firehouse Center was the perfect stage for the event.  The Firehouse staff opened their doors helping us bring our show to the stage.  Hailey Klein, our uber-talented executive producer brought the show to life and kept it on track.  The multi-media evening proved to be an uproarious and heartwarming good time with plenty of surprises.  We were able to deliver our message and raise funds for ROOF as well! 

Our Second Home

On Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, ROOF finalized purchase of its second home located in Amesbury, Massachusetts.  The two bedroom condominium is located in a well-kept, well-run condominium complex.  Our site selection team spent weeks inspecting the premises and meeting with the homeowners and determined it was a great fit for our organization.  We were able to purchase this home with the help of compassionate funders and supporters.  The home is being painted, cleaned and readied for our third ROOF family. 

Our Newest Member

Our year ended with Christin Walth joining our team.  She will assist our Board in managing  grants, programs, deadlines and the day-to-day functions of ROOF.  Christin, who hails from Newburyport, brings an enormous amount of talent, expertise and energy.  We are looking forward to beginning the New Year with a new focus and a continued determination to carry out our mission.

Donors

In the last quarter of 2011, ROOF was the recipient of very generous grants:  The Institution for Savings, The Provident Bank, The Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, Massachusetts Association of Realtors, Pennies for Poverty, The Forest Foundation, Central Congregational Church, The Swasey Foundation and Newburyport Area Industrial Development Foundation (NAID) all provided ROOF with funds allowing our organization to continue to provide transitional, supportive housing to at-risk members of our community.  We sincerely thank them for supporting our mission. 

In 2012 we look forward to working with our Board, supporters, volunteers and partners.  Thank you all who have followed our progress.  We promise to stay true to our mission and continue to support the most vulnerable families in our community.  The properties we transformed and the lives we impacted in 2011 will be a part of ROOF’s history.

September News from the ROOF Tops

News from the ROOF Tops

Roof goes Live!!

This week our website www.roofoverhead.org officially launches. ROOF’s site, donated by iMarc, LLC in Newburyport, will allow supporters, funders and advocates of ROOF instant access to news, events and information regarding our progress. iMarc’s incredibly talented team of designers and strategists worked with our Board for months to develop, design and build the site. iMarc is a privately held integrated web development and interactive marketing firm that creates powerful, engaging websites.

Events!

On October 21, 2011, ROOF will host The Port Follies: A Politically Incorrect Variety Show at The Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport. The evening offers local politicians a different kind of stage to showcase their "other sides" during this election season. Area mayoral and city council candidates throwing their hats in the ring this November will impress the audience with their lesser-known talents — singing, dancing, acting and more -- while other local notables sit and judge them from the sidelines. It promises to be an uproarious good time with plenty of surprise guests. Imagine, all this fun and all for a great cause! For more information or to purchase tickets, contact The Firehouse Center at www.firehouse.org or 978-462-7336.

Program News!

ROOF Over Head Collaborative, Inc. has made great strides in 2011. In its efforts, ROOF has received immeasurable support from a dedicated Board of Directors, a social services agency equipped to handle client issues, advocates and compassionate funders, who believe in ROOF’s mission and recognize the vital need in our community for transitional housing for at-risk and homeless families.

As you know, ROOF purchased its first property in June after receiving two major gifts from local institutions. This two bedroom condominium in an Amesbury neighborhood soon became home to a family of three. The Board and volunteers came together to ready the unit and make it a home for ROOF’s first family for the next two years. The family of three collected their belongings from their one room, one bed, 200 square foot motel room in Salisbury and moved in. They have been working with our partners at Community Action, Inc. and other social service providers and, two months later, both parents are gainfully employed and their son has begun his senior year at Newburyport High School, looking toward college. If not for the roof over their heads, this family, who had appeared to have exhausted all other available remedies, would be homeless and are now on the path to self-sufficiency.

We are proud to announce that ROOF leased its second unit in Newburyport in August. A local landlord who supports ROOF’s mission partnered with us in this lease. Our second family moved in on September 1, 2011. This move was not without issue. The family was in the process of being evicted from their apartment in Amesbury. On their drive to Newburyport their only car, a 1993 Subaru with an oil leak, was impounded which set off a series of events. The daughter needed to begin school on Monday and had no transportation. The mother, who works two jobs, was unable to get to work. The family had no money to get the car out of the impound lot. ROOF worked with CAI and local faith groups and community foundations to cobble together the funds to release the car, register, inspect and insure the car and fix the oil leak. The community came together to support a family in need. Without ROOF, this family too, would be homeless.

We will continue in our mission to provide supportive housing to at-risk members of our community with the help of supporters and funders.

Thank you for your continued dedication and support!

Stay tuned for more news from the ROOF Tops!!

First Home

Susanne Cameron and Kerri Perry, Co-Chairs of ROOF

As appeared in Newburyport Daily News, June 24, 2011

Group opens first home for homeless
By Ulrika G. Gerth CORRESPONDENT

AMESBURY — Volunteers worked on the condominium until it glowed. When the Roof Over Head Collaborative recently handed over the keys to a local couple and their teenage son, it represented a milestone in the group's mission to provide homeless families in Greater Newburyport with transitional housing.

"It took a village to pull it together," said Kerri Perry, co-chairwoman of ROOF, a local, privately funded nonprofit organization. "I couldn't believe the good of others. I was shocked by what was accomplished by just asking."

In the days leading up to the move, volunteers spared no detail in the two-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot unit situated in a quiet neighborhood within walking distance to downtown Amesbury. Someone mounted a door to cover an open closet. Another ran out to buy blinds.

Newburyport resident Bill Abbott, 86, oversaw the weeklong renovation in 90-degree heat. Neighbors ordered pizza for everyone, while former ROOF Chairwoman Norma Beit and her husband, Harvey, planted flowers outside.

Items such as mattress pads, a vacuum cleaner, paper products and garbage bags came from local donors. Local Realtor Nancy Purcell, who closed on the property in mid-May, donated her commission to the cause.

"I don't think anybody anticipated having a property ready in this short period of time," said Michael Jones, president of the Institution for Savings, which contributed $50,000 to ROOF last year. "It seemed like everybody stepped up when it was needed most."

ROOF was founded in 2009 by a group of retired residents who were determined to help the nearly 150 children and 300 adults in the region who are homeless, according to the Salisbury-based human services organization Pettengill House.

Since Perry, an attorney, and Susanne Cameron, a housing and community development professional, were elected co-chairwomen in January, the effort to find properties to purchase or rent in Newburyport, Amesbury and Salisbury accelerated. ROOF intends to move two more families into rentals in the fall and will gradually add a mix of condominiums and rentals to its roster. The organization has so far raised $150,000.

In June, less than a month after the closing, Perry picked up the mother and the son at Knotty Pine Motel on Beach Road in Salisbury and drove them to their new home. The father, an unemployed construction worker and avid walker, footed the distance.

"It's absolutely wonderful, the whole entire program," said the mother who asked not to be named. "It saved our lives; it saved our family's life. I feel so blessed. I never thought it'd be possible to go from losing everything to being able to provide again."

Families are referred to ROOF by other social service organizations and have to undergo a rigorous assessment. Rent is based on income, and selected families also have to agree to budget counseling, professional improvement classes and other measures to take control of their lives. They can stay no longer than two years before they have to make room for a new family, Cameron said.

"It's a difficult conversation to have, to let them know that there are all these expectations on the line and that the organizations we're working with are watching closely," Cameron said. "They have to own it; otherwise, it's not for them."

"This is an opportunity to work with people from a holistic perspective," said Pam Wool, director of Community Services at Community Action Inc., in Haverhill, whose Amesbury branch coordinates the ROOF program. "It's really exciting to see people respond to people in need in the community. They appreciate that poverty is not just a quick fix."

For the family, things fell apart five months ago when the rent dramatically went up on their Newburyport apartment at the same time as their car died, the father lost his job, and the mother was displaced and forced to take a lesser-paying position. After four months of doubling up with friends, they checked into the Salisbury motel.

Despite all the comforts of their new home, where the family enjoyed homemade stuffed chicken breasts Monday night, they have their sights set on finding a permanent place to live.

Said the mother, "I want to spend the rest of my life giving back to these people."

News from the ROOF tops

We’ve had an exciting Spring at ROOF!

We are proud to announce the acquisition of the first ROOF property! Thanks to Committee Members Nancy Purcell of Stoneridge Properties and Leslie Eckholt for identifying a 2-bedroom condominium within walking distance to downtown Amesbury! The unit is lovely and will soon be home to an area family in need. We would also like to thank our funders. This important milestone would not be possible without your support.

ROOF is working with our partners at Community Action, Inc. to identify families to participate in the ROOF program. CAI and ROOF, along with other area service providers, will identify families who have an income and a plan to get up and out of crisis within a two year time period. Providing stable, safe, and decent housing for up to two years will eliminate the stress of finding a suitable living situation and will allow the family to focus on education, job training, and other skills required to stabilize their lives.

In other news, we are proud to announce a new partnership with iMarc, who has generously donated their time and talent to build the new ROOF website. Founded in 1997, iMarc LLC, is a privately held integrated web development and interactive marketing firm located in historic downtown Newburyport, MA. iMarc combines creative brand-building power with leading software development to create powerful, engaging web sites that combine creative design, leading technologies and rigorous optimization to build strong brands, and improve relationships with customers, employees and partners. iMarc is committed to supporting non-profits and has extensive experience developing websites for such organizations as Wells Reserve, Seacoast Science Center, EcoHealth Alliance, and Newport Restoration Foundation. For more information, please visit www.imarc.net or contact Kim Jackson, Marketing Coordinator, at 978-462-8848. Thank you iMarc! Stay tuned for the launch of the new website later this spring.

Finally, we are very proud to announce a gift in the amount of $30,000 from the Moseley Foundation! The grant will be used by ROOF for property acquisition and rental subsidies for our rental program. A special thanks to Bob and Kay Howe for their passion and support.

One final item: We are always looking for household items for program families and we will post our immediate needs from time-to-time. Please keep us in mind before you dispose of furniture or small household appliances, paint, cleaning products, etc. We will put these items to good use.

Thanks to all for your help and support!!

Susanne and Kerri
Co-Chairs, ROOF Over Head Collaborative