Brown Named Executive Director Of Kosciusko Habitat For Humanity
November 7, 2020 at 4:59 a.m.
By Jackie [email protected]
Jama Brown started as director for Habitat Monday. She said she’s been in nonprofit for four years and when someone asked her to step in as executive director, she did. The organization had been looking for someone for a year and Brown has fundraising experience.
The director oversees things like making sure all of the applications for homes come through and making sure people know what the process is. However, she said it is a team effort.
Brown said she has a great foundation from the previous director, Mickey Kaufman.
Brown said that Kaufman served as executive director for six years, did a great job of getting the organization financially stable, built a good team of volunteers and built a good relationship with area churches, as well as put Habitat into a building with a footprint where people can come visit.
“She did a great job and my hope is that we can thank her and move on in her honor,” Brown said.
Brown explained what Habitat for Humanity does for the area.
“Our goal is giving low-income homeownership to people, but we’re doing it in a way that’s a hand up, not a hand out,” Brown said. “And that was very important to me to make sure the community knew that these aren’t free houses. There’s a mortgage that’s involved and we go through a whole application process and it gets people financial literacy and they learn about the process.”
Due to Mickey’s “amazing stewardship,” Brown said Habitat is able to build two houses a year. “The goal is just to keep growing at a measured pace and just engage our community in reminding them our ministry is really for people that tend to not have as many opportunities.”
Habitat is “first and foremost a faith-based organization. It’s why we work really closely with the ministerial associations in Warsaw and Syracuse. And we work really hard to provide stability to families and while we take it interally as a ministry that’s personal to us, anyone is welcome to apply. Any family is welcome to apply,” Brown said.
Brown said Habitat’s footprint is Kosciusko County, so they try to stay within the county. “We know there’s a need and the Kosciusko County Community Foundation has come up with their study of their discovery that have a housing shortage and the folks we serve fall into that.”
Brown said it’s a good opportunity for people to buy a home. She also stated there is a mortgage through Habitat that the homeowners pay for on the house. There’s no construction company to profit off the construction of the house, so Habitat is able to keep the payments low for the homeowners.
Brown said her goal is to take Mickey’s advice and remind people that Habitat is there to build houses with money that the organization is fortunate enough to earn or have donated to it.
“There’s no higher calling for our ministry and Habitat than to build houses,” she said.
One project that Brown hopes is in Habitat’s future is aging in place. Brown said Kaufman really wanted to try to get off the ground.
“It takes seniors that already own their own home and we retro fit them for handicapped accessibility so they don’t have to leave just because they need a need a bathroom on the main floor or they need a ramp up,” Brown said, noting it’s a good goal a couple years down the line.
Jama Brown started as director for Habitat Monday. She said she’s been in nonprofit for four years and when someone asked her to step in as executive director, she did. The organization had been looking for someone for a year and Brown has fundraising experience.
The director oversees things like making sure all of the applications for homes come through and making sure people know what the process is. However, she said it is a team effort.
Brown said she has a great foundation from the previous director, Mickey Kaufman.
Brown said that Kaufman served as executive director for six years, did a great job of getting the organization financially stable, built a good team of volunteers and built a good relationship with area churches, as well as put Habitat into a building with a footprint where people can come visit.
“She did a great job and my hope is that we can thank her and move on in her honor,” Brown said.
Brown explained what Habitat for Humanity does for the area.
“Our goal is giving low-income homeownership to people, but we’re doing it in a way that’s a hand up, not a hand out,” Brown said. “And that was very important to me to make sure the community knew that these aren’t free houses. There’s a mortgage that’s involved and we go through a whole application process and it gets people financial literacy and they learn about the process.”
Due to Mickey’s “amazing stewardship,” Brown said Habitat is able to build two houses a year. “The goal is just to keep growing at a measured pace and just engage our community in reminding them our ministry is really for people that tend to not have as many opportunities.”
Habitat is “first and foremost a faith-based organization. It’s why we work really closely with the ministerial associations in Warsaw and Syracuse. And we work really hard to provide stability to families and while we take it interally as a ministry that’s personal to us, anyone is welcome to apply. Any family is welcome to apply,” Brown said.
Brown said Habitat’s footprint is Kosciusko County, so they try to stay within the county. “We know there’s a need and the Kosciusko County Community Foundation has come up with their study of their discovery that have a housing shortage and the folks we serve fall into that.”
Brown said it’s a good opportunity for people to buy a home. She also stated there is a mortgage through Habitat that the homeowners pay for on the house. There’s no construction company to profit off the construction of the house, so Habitat is able to keep the payments low for the homeowners.
Brown said her goal is to take Mickey’s advice and remind people that Habitat is there to build houses with money that the organization is fortunate enough to earn or have donated to it.
“There’s no higher calling for our ministry and Habitat than to build houses,” she said.
One project that Brown hopes is in Habitat’s future is aging in place. Brown said Kaufman really wanted to try to get off the ground.
“It takes seniors that already own their own home and we retro fit them for handicapped accessibility so they don’t have to leave just because they need a need a bathroom on the main floor or they need a ramp up,” Brown said, noting it’s a good goal a couple years down the line.
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