Conversations with Chris Johnson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Johnson.

Be the gift is a non-profit organization that began in 2008 and is devoted to improve and secure family stability by providing home repair at NO COST for Widows and Single Mom homeowners and their children. Chris Johnson, Be the Gift’s Founder and Executive Director with over two decades working with families, recognized an opportunity to support and help alleviate a large need not being met in the community. He approached a neighbor, a single mom raising her daughter and inquired about helping her with her home. Through tears, she described her old, leaking, and inefficient windows. A team of volunteers came together, purchased, installed new windows, and witnessed a family’s life changed forever. From that day forward, it became our mission to assist as many single moms and children with home repair as possible and Be the Gift was born! Be the gift exists to assist widows and single mom homeowners who struggle to make hard decisions regularly about paying for necessities like food, clothing, childcare, health care, and transportation, making home repairs prohibitive, not by choice but because of basic economics. The majority lack the resources (money, skills, expertise, and time) to repair and fix their homes. It has heavily hit our Widow and Single Mom Family population in these uncertain times, who are already making hard economic decisions for ordinary everyday living. Many have several jobs to make ends meet and are certainly affected by the recent COVID-19 restrictions. We are proud of single moms who take on the responsibility of keeping up their home and provide stability for their children. With rental property so unpredictable, the best affordable housing often becomes their own home. In twelve years, not one project for a single mom family has been the same as another. A child living in a single-parent home has a difficult enough situation to handle and often by no fault of their own becomes the victim to the many circumstances and struggles that unfold in their lives. Yet every child deserves a safe and healthy environment in which to grow up!

Our first year operating as a non-profit organization was in Northern Colorado and Be the Gift completed 13 home repair projects and now averages a project every five days. As we have grown, so have the boundaries. We quickly expanded our service to include Single Moms all around the Greater Denver Area. Each has a story of their journey, and we find that “home repair leads to heart repair.” Goals: We have three focus goals as we serve the Greater Denver Area and Northern Colorado. 1) Home repair for widows, single moms, and their children. Be a gift serves a varied population of women and children, often with three generations of ladies living in one home. Priority is given to health and safety issues. 35% of our projects involve helping single moms who are disabled and assisting those with special needs children. Single Mom homeowners can request assistance or be nominated by a friend, co-worker, or family member. The situation and issue in these single mom homes often come down to basic economics. To make housing more affordable, families may forego necessary home repairs to pay for other needs, allowing their homes to fall further into disrepair. Over time, the stresses associated with cost-burdened or indecent housing can endanger occupants’ health and safety, erode their sense of self-worth, and impair their children’s professional and academic success. Being the gift with its team of professionals and volunteers becomes the solution by providing at no charge a gift of home repair to single moms and their children. We use a blend of professionals and volunteers who completely donate their time.

Our project managers are professional builders, carpenters, masons, and electricians etc. who participate in our program and utilize their skills. We replace and fix broken windows, repair plumbing and leaks, fix dangerous electrical situations, install, remove broken trees, clean up debris, yard work, repair fencing and damaged walls and anything else that the single mom needs to help their home and household be safe, healthy and function properly. 2) Community Involvement/Volunteerism. We organize, facilitate, and implement programs and projects that mobilize individuals, community volunteers and organizations in providing for these household repairs for single mom families. Our volunteers are really the “backbone.” Many are willing and looking for opportunities to serve. We believe that everyone has a dream of doing something significant with his or her life. We are uniting everyday ordinary people with an opportunity to do extraordinary things by facilitating acceptance, compassion, kindness, and change in their community through single mom home repair. One of the greatest gifts we can give another is our time and Be the Gift helps fulfill their goal of community involvement and team building where we connect those who want to help with those who need help. We know that “service changes the server.” 3) Self-sufficiency through Education We believe in helping a single mom become self-sufficient. We educate her about her home with the result of being able to do simple fixes as well as recognize and resolve home issues on her own. Our services aid in the well-being of all members in the household. The single mothers will live in the knowledge that her home is safe for her children. We see fear leave and self-respect and self-confidence rise as we teach them how they themselves can maintain their home. Our goal is to instill pride and a desire to remain in their existing housing rather than move or leave the problem behind, which then can trigger that same feeling of failure. They focus on their abilities and realize there are people who care and are willing to invest in their lives and are excited to see the progress these mothers make each day in each situation.

We serve widows, grandmothers raising their grandchildren, single moms and their children living in the Denver Greater Area and Northern Colorado. Priority is given to at risk children, disabled clients, special needs children, and safety and health issues. Over 70% of the home repair we provide serves the needs of many with the rising concern, especially in children and grandchildren of home environmental illnesses such as asthma and allergies. This is an increasingly recognized source of injury and exacerbation of illness, particularly in vulnerable populations such as pregnant women and children. Everyone knows a single mom so imagine the gift you could be! Refer a single mom or nominate her and Be the Gift will do the rest. Join our team of community-wide volunteers; there is a place for everyone as we utilize professionals and all other skill levels. Help us continue our mission by supporting these projects with a financial donation. Visit our website www.bethegift.com to get connected.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Be the gift have been blessed from day one to have a wonderful team of paid staff and volunteers with the vision and heart to reach out to Widows and Single Moms who are such a vulnerable sector of our population. The request for assistance has increased each year and thus Be the Gift and our services have grown significantly. We currently have an Operations Manager (a paid staff member) who works primarily in North Denver and our plan is to hire another one to work in South Denver. Each would facilitate our projects, safety program, the equipment uses and maintenance and oversees our volunteers in the Denver Area. This includes initial site evaluation of single mom’s home to determine needs, scheduling and coordinating project managers and volunteers, assessment and material purchases, project day facilitation and follow up. With every 5 hours dedicated to “project day,” there is another 25 hours of assessments, planning, material purchases, set up, clean up and more that goes into making that project possible to run effectively and safely. Another dedicated person in this position will being credibility, leadership and consistency to the position and most importantly increase the response time and the number of home repair projects we can initiate and complete as these ladies are anxious and patiently waiting for their project to begin while living in sub-standard and often dangerous conditions.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
 BTG is committed to providing an environment in which the rights and dignity of everyone with whom we serve and do business is respected. We are proud to serve any single mom who contacts us with a gift of home repair at no cost to them with the only qualifications are being a homeowner and their request falls within the scope of work that we are able to do.  We work with community members from all walks of life who want to serve where they live and work. Be the gift provides a place for volunteers to put their faith and life into action.  Be the gift is unique in these communities as we provide much-needed home repair as a gift with no cost to the family as their financial situation usually prohibits spending on such issues.  We know of no other organization dedicated solely to the work we do.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I enjoy the leadership in the books of John Maxwell.

Contact Info:

• Email: info@bethegift.com
• Website: www.bethegift.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethegiftinc/