The Crookston Care and Share have partnered with the churches around Crookston to help prepare their Hope Center for several homeless families to live in while the Care & Share helps them find proper housing and jobs with their Adopt-A-Room Program.
Due to families having a harder time finding rental properties for them to stay at and needing more time to find necessities they need to take care of themselves, former Care & Share Case Manager Liz Rowan came up with the idea to have the local churches adopt rooms in the Hope Center for them to prepare for families. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Rowan proposed that various local churches would adopt a room at the Hope Center. Unfortunately, the idea was put on hold during the pandemic due to the restrictions the Center had about who could come in and out, but with the pandemic’s ending, the Center revived the idea last September.
“At this point, this has been seen as such a valuable opportunity for churches to help us and families at the Hope Center, so we revived this program. What it amounts to is the church’s adopt a room or one of the two-room units at the Hope Center,” Care & Share Director Jane Freeman explained. “Then it’s up to them on what they’re going to do with it, but the idea behind it is, they’ll make it homier, more individual, they’ll put things in the room like a Welcome Basket for the families, add nice bedding, put some curtains up, add a piece of furniture, or wall hangings. That makes it more homey and more welcoming.”
The families also have the opportunity to take some of the décor or furniture for their new permanent homes if they like the décor or additions to the room the church gave them. Then the Care and Share will contact the churches about the open room for them to clean, paint, and repair any items to get it ready for the next family.
The Trinity Lutheran Church has taken the lead on Adopt-A-Room (other participating churches include the Harvest Church and the Nexus Church in Thief River Falls) after Rowan reached out to the church in 2021 and after meeting with Freeman after the pandemic. Trinity’s Director of Children, Youth & Family Ministries, Leah Winjum, met with the committee of people interested in the project and got to work on the room soon after Christmas. Knowing the projects would be too much for one church to handle alone, Trinity soon reached out to other local churches to help with the Hope Center.
“The idea came to us from Liz (Rowan), and then we talked about it as a staff and knew that it wasn’t something that could just be a Trinity thing. It needed to be a collaborative thing because it was too large of a task. Our pastor, Greg Isaacson, mentioned that we had been working closely with the other churches and suggested an “Adopt-A-Room” approach, so each church gets one of the spaces in there,” Winjum explained. “Some are one bedroom, some are two bedrooms, and it’s up to each church and the committee that steps up for each church to do that individual refreshing, maintenance, and upkeep for each specific room as it opens up throughout the year. Then it doesn’t seem like such a daunting task for any one church. It can be each church taking ownership of that space and working collaboratively together.”
Kristi Nelson, one of the leaders of the work team for the Trinity’s room, explained how the church prepared its room for the Hope Center.
“First, we met as a committee to get an idea of what the rooms could or would need. We met on the first day and looked at things like paint, carpet, lighting, things that we could upgrade or ask donations for. That was Day 1, so we made a list. We got together and met one or two times to get an idea of what we would need for supplies. Then the Welcome Basket was also designed about that time for the new family. Then for the room, we went in there and met for the first time, ripped out the carpet and padding, and realized the flooring might need to be sanitized with some things. So, we regrouped and spent some time looking at the walls, got some paint, did a lot of painting, and completely gutted and sanded the room. Once we got it cleaned up, we really had to get going. We didn’t know the timeline for which family was coming and when they were coming. So we started reaching out to businesses, and I got a gracious donation from Northern Lumber, who donated the carpet, and NAPA Crookston Welding donated the paint, and it just grew from there. It was kind of a snowball, but we got going, and we got more volunteers, got the tax striping out, scrubbed the floors, and did a mold check on the floor, so every time we met, we tried to do something started, and going.”
To help the moving families moving into the Hope Center, Trinity Lutheran Church is taking donations for Adopt-A-Room Welcome Baskets to be given to the families. Items they accept include diapers, small laundry baskets/mesh hampers, deodorant, shampoo/conditioner, toothbrushes/toothpaste, towels/washcloths, paper plates, toilet paper, and more. Donations can be dropped off in the entryway, office, or narthex of the Trinity Lutheran Church during the month of February. If you have any questions about donating items or the Welcome Basket, you can contact Leah Winjum at 218-289-3250.
Currently, the local churches have adopted five of the six units in the Hope Center. The final unit, a two-room unit, is available for any churches or businesses to adopt.
“Obviously, this doesn’t have to only be churches. This is a community service type of situation. There is one unit that remains available for adoption, it is a two-room unit, so it takes a little bit more of a commitment but not that much. These aren’t huge places,” Freeman explained. “So, anybody who thinks they’re interested in adopting that two-room unit, any church or other entity, contact me at the Care & Share at 218-281-2644 if you are interested in adopting that additional unit that’s available.”
