The Roxbury Village Home provides a home to 18-22 year olds transitioning from state systems to independence. A team of local professionals has been working together for nearly a year to make it’s renovation possible.
O’LYN Contractors, Inc. learned from Karen Holmes Ward, Director of Public Affairs at WCVB Channel 5, that a renovation including a new roof was needed for The Home for Little Wanderers’ Roxbury Village Home on Alpine Street in Roxbury, MA. Karen organizes Extreme Makeover: My Hometown, WCVB-TV’s local version of the ABC Sunday night hit Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and will be featuring the charity on the show sometime in 2012 when it is completed.
The Home for Little Wanderers is the nation’s oldest and one of New England’s largest, non-profit child and family service agencies. The mission of The Home for Little Wanderers is to ensure the healthy behavioral, emotional, social and educational development and physical well-being of children and families living in at-risk circumstances. Roxbury Village will provide a home to nine 18-22 year olds in Boston who are about to be discharged from state systems of care as well as those who were discharged from care and are currently homeless. The property was acquired and is being developed by L. Duane Jackson of Alinea Capital Partners, LLC, a Boston based real estate development and investment company. When completed, Roxbury Village will be the first transitional home for youth aging out of the system funded exclusively by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of Boston. It also represents an innovative and unique model for collaboration between public, private and non-profit entities to effectively serve those in need.
After months of pleas and lobbying by O’LYN Contractors, Inc. to suppliers for a donation of materials to reroof the Boston triple-decker, Heritage Wholesalers, Inc. was approached and eagerly offered their assistance with the project. They partnered with manufacturer Genflex and generously donated nearly $5,000 worth of stock for the rubber roof. EagleView Technologies, an industry leader for 3D aerial measurement services, also donated a full report on the property.
When Orbit Roofing, with their extensive experience and specialization in flat rubber roofs, offered to do the strip and installation, O’LYN Contractors, Inc. turned the project over to them. With their own crane and extensive full-time flat roof crews, they were able to provide resources that otherwise would have to be obtained at added cost for the project. This kind of teamwork and cooperation between two occasional competitors in the roofing industry illustrates the true spirit of this project and the emphasis on the future of our community.
With a likely April or May ribbon cutting ceremony, everyone involved is looking forward to seeing Roxbury Village provide a safe and comfortable home for young people to build a promising future for themselves by identifying an area of interest and a goal. It will also prevent homelessness for the Roxbury Village target population by providing a set of services and supports that will help these young adults to develop and maintain the assets needed to be self-sufficient, productive adults. Roxbury Village will fill the gap between the services that older youths received while in state care and the lives they enter upon “graduation” with no further help from the human services field.
