Learn about the history and mission of Welcome to Housing

By Sofia Langlois at The Main Campus

APRIL 8, 2024

Welcome to Housing Home Goods Bank, Inc. (WTH) is a nonprofit furniture bank that provides essential items to people transitioning from shelters to permanent residencies across Maine. In 2011, Volunteer Founder and Co-Chair Chris Olsen built the organization from the ground up with a group of enthusiastic volunteers.

The local community donates all basic household products, furniture and adaptive equipment. WTH occasionally uses funds raised to purchase items that are hard to get donated or for liability reasons (must be new and unused), such as child car safety seats.

Olsen has been involved in volunteerism since he was young, starting with change collections for UNICEF at Halloween. After more than 15 years in nonprofit management and earning his real estate license, Olsen decided to get back into nonprofit work and established the all-volunteer organization.

“One of the reasons behind it being all-volunteer and why I like it that way too is that we can be creative and we can adjust the way we need to. There is not a lot of formality and hierarchy. If something works, we use it. If it doesn’t work, we move on.” said Olsen. “As an all-volunteer organization, you can really find people who are in it for the right reason, and that is because we are trying to help people.”

Full article at: https://mainecampus.com/category/culture/2024/04/learn-about-the-history-and-mission-of-welcome-to-housing/