Dozens of volunteers spent Thursday Friday painting and restoring two Our House buildings to expand opportunities for at risk young males who are nearing adulthood.
Our House is a residential community for up to 20 youths who are between 16 and 21 years old and are wards of the state. While living at the property in Brookville, they receive job training, professional counseling, life skill workshops, GED preparation and other opportunities in a supportive environment. They can earn construction, hospitality, IT and security certificates.
Our House Executive Director Beatrice Rice and her non-profit board members realized that once their participants neared the age of 21, they didn’t necessarily have anywhere to go.
To fill this need, Our House staff decided to fix up building where the young people eat their meals, creating a new living space for participants who already graduated high school so they can better transition back into the community. They will make their own meals and pay a small rent.
Volunteers and staff from Rebuilding Together Montgomery County in Gaithersburg and Donaldson real estate investment and management firm in Rockville spent two days painting rooms, installing new bathroom fixtures, repairing a front porch and planting flowers.
Rebuilding Together Montgomery County is a nonprofit that provides free home repairs and accessibility modifications to income-eligible homeowners. In 2023, the organization worked at 180 sites.
The Our House project is its 30th project of this fiscal year.
Thankful to @RTMontCo and property management company Donaldson for restoring these buildings at Brookeville's @OurHouse_ZionRd.
Our House is doing incredible work providing a safe home and job training for at-risk teens. This project will allow them to offer more services! pic.twitter.com/Tn9d4WWXXA
— Councilmember Dawn Luedtke (@dawn_luedtke) October 4, 2024
