Meet Eilene Spear of HomeAhead Furniture Bank

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eilene Spear.

Hi Eilene, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
HomeAhead began in 2018, when the parishioners at St. Andrews Presbyterian in Boulder realized one of their congregants, Rebecca, needed help. Rebecca had been unhoused for a long time, but she was moving into an apartment with the help of a local nonprofit. The only problem was, Rebecca had nothing to fill her new space with. So the parishioners at St. Andrews came together, finding Rebecca what she needed to make her new home comfortable.

Realizing Rebecca’s situation wasn’t unique, an informal collective with volunteers from St. Andrew’s, Congregation Har HaShem, and the community formed to meet this need in the community. volunteers from St. Andrew, Congregation Har HaShem, and the community created an informal group to collect and distribute used home furnishings to people in need. Together they furnished nearly 400 homes between 2019 and 2021. As demand grew, the team made a strategic decision to transform the volunteer organization into an independent 501(c)(3). With seed money from St. Andrew, HomeAhead incorporated in late 2021, hired a part-time Executive Director in 2022 and added a part-time Operations Manager in 2023. To date, we have furnished over 1000 homes—offering a fresh start to individuals and families who are exiting homelessness, fleeing violence, aging out of foster care, and starting over after incarceration.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
One major struggle the organization faced initially was transportation. We had volunteers and the will, but no easy way to get furniture from point A to point B. The group met this challenge with a loose connection of pick-up trucks, eventually moving up to borrowing trucks from real estate agents who worked with the organization until another organization, HOPE for Longmont, donated a 10 ft yellow box truck to HomeAhead in early 2023. As our founder, Joe Pickett, likes to say, “This was a game changer.” Affectionally nick-named “Big Yellow”, this gift opened up our ability to donate furniture to clients, pick furniture up and leave it on the truck to donate the next day, and generally made life easier for the many many moves done over the years. I’m afraid Big Yellow is on her last legs (tires?), but she can rest easy knowing she made a huge difference in the lives of many, many people.
Our current challenge is a lack of storage space. We are cobbling together a few options–rooms in a church basement, a storage container in the church parking lot and a storage container in Longmont, but we dream of finding a warehouse located convenient to Boulder and Longmont where we can base all of our operations. The obstacle there is a consistent funding source. We are making do and working to find consistent donors and funds, but there is a lot of uncertainty we also face the reality that funding is becoming more uncertain. We’re not alone — across the country, nonprofits are working harder than ever to keep up with growing needs and shrinking dollars. But we’ve got a plan. We are part of a network of nearly 100 furniture banks across North America, and we’ve learned from others how to build resilience. Many have launched a simple, common-sense revenue stream — a fee-based clear-out service. We provide a professional service to people who need help clearing out furniture and home goods during a move or downsize, and importantly, much of the furniture and home goods we collect are immediately repurposed to furnish homes for those in need.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about HomeAhead Furniture Bank?
HomeAhead is a furniture bank serving Boulder County. We help people who are low-income or transitioning out of homelessness furnish their apartments with donations from the community. We are an incredibly lean organization, with 3-4 paid staff: an executive director, a part-time operations manager, and two movers, as well as a dedicated board and group of volunteers who do the work of picking up donations, gathering donations, sorting donations and delivering the items to people who need them across Boulder County. I am so proud of the work we do and with how we are consistently adapting and changing to make things happen. HomeAhead is small, but mighty and we are flexible, always growing and willing to try new things to make sure our core mission is accomplished. Additionally, HomeAhead is very proud of the way we are perceived by our clients. One mother told us, “The furniture was an absolute godsend. More than the comfort — it was the dignity of receiving help without judgment.” We work very hard to treat our clients with respect, making sure whenever feasible, clients can choose their furnishings and are happy with what they receive.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
HomeAhead’s ability to adapt has been crucial to our success. No one at HomeAhead is married to “the way we do things” because it is constantly changing to be effecient, resourceful, and making use of what we have to get the job done.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://homeahead.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeahead/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088000627639

Image Credits
All images were taken by Mary Gaylord, Executive Director of HomeAhead or Eilene Spear, Operations Coordinator