It’s hard to believe that three months have passed since many of us gathered in Minneapolis. It was a great exchange of best practices and common barriers, and it demonstrated the tremendous potential of furniture banks coming together to share information.

It is in this spirit that we are excited to announce that we’re advancing the organization to form the “Furniture Bank Association of North America” (FBANA), or in daily usage simply the “Furniture Bank Association.” While our mission remains the same, the new organization will encourage more frequent communication among members, will expand the resources and best practices information available, and takes on a name that clearly defines our service area and allows us to better engage our neighbors in Canada, demonstrating that the scope of our mission and vision extend beyond the borders of a single country.

We will continue to focus on building the capacity and capability of furniture banks to serve their communities, and encourage and guide more cities to establish furniture banks for the benefit of their residents and their environment. We will also look to connect regional- or national- scope furniture donors and cross-border donors with all member furniture banks in the U.S. and Canada that they have the potential to benefit.

We hope you’ve got your calendar marked for our next conference, which is scheduled for March 2013 in Columbus, Ohio and will be hosted by the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio in Columbus, Ohio.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Furniture Bank Association if we can be of any assistance to your organization. We all run into situations that are unique. Please know that the members of the leadership team are more than happy to listen, guide and help to the best of our abilities. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-373-2835 (currently answered by the staff of the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio), or on the internet at  www.furniturebanks.org  or at  www.fbana.org.

We look forward to working with you in the coming months and years … so that no child or adult will have to sleep on the floor.

The CARITAS Furniture Bank has been all hustle and bustle this new year, collaborating with community partners to ensure the efficient and organized arrival of its largest donation to date, the entire contents of the former Ramada Hotel in Henrico. The 375 rooms worth of inventory are expected to serve about 450 families over six months. Details of Genworth Financial’s gracious donation made its debut in the local news this Valentine’s Day, but the heart of this story, the lives this donation is changing, continues to unfold.

“You’ve got to hear this,” Spencer Slater, a CARITAS employee and alumni of The Healing Place, exclaimed as he rolled into his coworker’s office. “This client came through the Furniture Bank this morning and called back this afternoon to thank us.” All we could hear through the phone were her outbursts of “thank you’s” between her sobs of tears; this was a woman humbled beyond words. Another client shared that her family had been sleeping on palettes before visiting the Furniture Bank and taking home new beds for her children. She, too, was overwhelmed with thanks for the bounty she received.

Up to 20 families each week have benefited from the quality mattresses, dressers, chairs, lamps, linens, towels and other household items that now demand the space of our large warehouse. But just as each item must be packaged and loaded up on a truck to head to its new home, so did it once move from the old Ramada to the Furniture Bank. It was the hard work of many hands and able bodies that came together to deliver the donation here in the first place.

The CARITAS Furniture Bank’s own team of staff, AmeriCorps members and volunteers expanded this winter when Director Karen O’Brien saw this large-scale donation as an opportunity to create transitional employment for CARITAS Works graduates and clients of The Healing Place. In addition to maintaining the usual fast-pace operations at the Furniture Bank, this special projects team partnered with Genworth, the Ramada hotel staff, Hilldrup Moving and Storage Company, Winns Hauling, and Estes Trucking to manage the logistics of organizing and transporting the 300 tons of inventory.

It was this unique donation that called for such a diverse breadth of teamwork, but it was the spirit of servant-leadership, central to CARITAS’ values, that made this undertaking such a multi-faceted success. Moving forward, Genworth’s own employees have committed to volunteering their afternoons to sorting through and preparing the donations for our client area. Other local agencies and individual volunteers are likewise taking this opportunity to get involved. From the men who were given transitional employment and new work skills to enhance their resumes, to the regular volunteers who discovered their strength while lifting and loading the incoming donations, to the group of retired friends who come each Thursday to utilize their restoration skills in our woodshop, and the stream of households affected by their dedication, new life is found in old objects after all.

A group of Boy Scouts gave “the gift of home” to some struggling families in Pontiac MI recently, by partnering with the Furniture Bank of Southeastern Michigan to build some kitchen tables. Using a table design initiated by the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio in Columbus OH, the scouts were able to produce about 20 kitchen tables with the guidance of their adult moderators. This project proved not only beneficial to families in need, but was also great training and experience in giving back in the community.

When Harry Swanson of The Free Store in Des Moines, IA, learned that inmates in Ohio were making dressers for families in need, he called Becky Munoz at Iowa Prison Industries and inquired about the possibility of have the Iowa inmates make dressers for domestic violence victims in need in Des Moines. Becky was happy to tackle the project, and delivered 32 dressers to The Free Store in December 2011. Harry was delighted with the results, and the two organizations hope to repeat the project again in 2012.

To view a larger version of this web page image, Click here.

Bridging, Inc. in Minneapolis, MN (the largest furniture bank in the U.S.), will be the host for the conference, and the Comfort Inn Airport will make their conference room(s) available for the various sessions. They were also the host of the first NFBA conference in 2007, which was attended by more than 40 individuals. “What a great time opportunity to get together to share, listen and gather some new ideas from all over the country and from our friends in Canada as well,” said Suzie Jordan.

Delta Airlines is offering air fare discounts, and Comfort Inn will be offering a reduced $69/night room rate for attendees.

You can  CLICK HERE  to download the “Save the Date” flier in PDF format.

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Saturday, September 24th from 10 am – 2 pm
COMMUNITY COLLECTION DAY
at the Mustard Seed Furniture Bank
3636 Illinois Road – Fort Wayne, IN

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Bring your items that still have life to share — clothing, furniture, building supplies, cabinets, linens and major appliances.
Donations will benefit local nonprofits – Mustard Seed Furniture Bank, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Vincent Village, St. Vincent dePaul Store and Cross Borders Partners.

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October 8, 2011
COLOR MY WORLD
8th Annual Charity Auction & Dinner
$65.00/per person
$600 for a table of 8**
Sponsorship Levels are available at
$1,000, $2,500 and $5,000**
Paid Reservations are Required
**special recognition is provided
For more information contact 260-471-5802 x100

 
Furniture Bank volunteers building a dresser.         Dressers produced at Marion Correctional.

In 2010, FBCO received 2,711 dressers in donation from residents and institutions, but they served 3,565 families in need. So, families could only receive 1, and sometimes not even 1. With the help of volunteers in their own woodshop and the inmates at Marion Correctional, FBCO will add about 1,600 dressers to incoming donations in 2011. In 2012, the number of dressers produced by inmates is projected to be 2,500, and another 1,000 will be built by furniture bank volunteers. In all, FBCO expects to have more than 6,000 dressers to serve a projected 4,600 families. This is definitely better than 2010, but more will still be needed. Stay tuned for future updates!