Sometimes it's fun to go back to the beginning and tell the whole story. And you are such a big part of this story.
Homes and Havens began in 2016 with a determined mission: to create healing spaces for women recovering from trauma through home design. And boy, has this community rallied around us! You gave money, you volunteered, you told friends and family about us, you shared our posts on social media, you sent us clients, you donated furniture, you sponsored projects – you showed us that this work is important.
And then we all survived the last few years – which were equally hard and clarifying. Our organization made a lot of shifts (as did many of you) and gained important time to evaluate what has been full of goodness and where we could make space to grow. Our mission remains closer than ever and we cannot wait to share more about the beautiful ways we are still growing!
But first – how about a little walk down memory lane? It might be helpful to see just how far we have come because of supporters like you.
Many of you might know our founder, Kaysie Strickland, as the face of Homes & Havens. (Now she's not the only face, much to her delight!) Over seven years ago, she described God planting the seed for this idea in her heart and we have all watched it bloom into our community. She started Homes & Havens as a personal side-hustle after feeling drawn to offer interior design more formally. Within weeks of launching Homes & Havens, she felt a deep compassion for women in recovery who longed for a haven in their own home, but couldn't afford the materials or a designer to make that a reality.
Torn between building the business or launching a formal ministry, she decided to create a nonprofit to support the homes that couldn't afford a haven. She was eager to test out the concept of “trauma-informed design,” which describes a unique approach that integrates psychology and story-work into the design process.
And all of this sounds much more formal than it felt at the time – Kaysie started taking design projects and funding them herself or using her own furniture to complete the makeovers. She worked out of a small guest room and her dilapidated carport while the word spread about what she was offering women in need.
In the beginning we relied on furniture donations more than anything and every time Kaysie made a request for items on social media, furniture would flood in. But alas, the carport couldn't contain it all for much longer.
This community started pouring in support! After multiple conversations with a local landlord, Homes & Havens officially launched into a small store-front in East Ridge, TN. How many of you remember this?! It was such a big moment for us! We hosted an open house and so many people came and encouraged Kaysie in this journey. The space was only 800 square feet – and we outgrew it in about a week. 😀
The momentum began to build as we formally partnered with local recovery agencies to serve their clients leaving difficult life situations and overcoming trauma. Our client waiting list grew as we gathered support from the community and formalized our 501(c)(3). And after almost 12 months in our little East Ridge studio, we knew it was time to expand.
We needed more space but we had no idea how to make that happen. During this time, we began growing our board of directors and received our formal paperwork as an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Through the generosity of many, including our board members, we explored an empty building on McCallie Ave that would fit this season perfectly.
In 2018, we moved into the beautiful studio space at 1404 McCallie Ave.
We met so many of you in this space! We hosted volunteer painting parties, concerts, speaking events, 12 step recovery groups, a Creative Morning, a Summer and Christmas Market, volunteer trainings, case worker breakfasts, on top of all the materials we used for home installations for our clients.
We also began receiving requests to design local nonprofit spaces, including recovery homes, therapist offices, and residential facilities – which provided a small income stream to help fuel our residential projects and operations. We hired our first team member outside of Kaysie (sweet Meg!). We developed a partnership with Bellhop Moving, got featured on Chatter Magazine as the cover story, Kaysie was nominated and won Changemaker of the Year during the CHA Startup Awards, and we were selected for an 12 month incubator program with Causeway. We developed an internship that served as an effective hiring funnel to grow the H&H team, which at this point included one full-time employee (Kaysie) and four part-time employees (sweet Katie, Diana, Morgan, and Madison).
Our nonprofit commercial design projects continued to grow alongside our residential projects and we found ourselves creating healing spaces in homes and offices all across Chattanooga. And because of our diverse partnerships with local nonprofits, we got a unique view into the hard and costly work nonprofit leaders and community servants offer to our community. We wondered how we could create a healing space for them too.
And then March 2020 happened.
As the pandemic began to sweep through the world, our programs slowed down. Our studio got quiet and events ceased. We adapted to a no volunteer model and tightened our processes to better serve our clients during this time. Kaysie, our founder, slowed down for the first time since the conception of Homes & Havens and realized how tired and in need of rest she felt. Creating healing spaces began to take on a new meaning as she began to explore what resources were available for nonprofit leaders in our community.
In 2021, fresh off from maternity leave, Kaysie and the team (Madison, Katie, Diana, To'Nesha, and Morgan + several interns) moved into the studio space at 1807 Bailey Ave. This space offered better structure for our team and programs while creating an additional opportunity to offer therapeutically designed office spaces to local therapists in the upstairs of our building. During the pandemic, our team pivoted to serve even more nonprofit spaces which stabilized our operations amidst a really tumultuous season. We were now able to begin evaluating our processes for serving clients and measure what things were working well and what needed improvements.
In 2022, we also developed and launched a retreat initiative for nonprofit and ministry leaders in our community through the generosity of the Maclellan Foundation. This opportunity allowed us to explore another way to offer healing spaces to those touched by trauma in our community. The first cohort graduated last month and we are hearing incredible stories of healing and renewal from this new program. (Also we just opened applications for the next cohort starting in January.)
We also started building out better infrastructure for our team and formalizing roles and responsibilities. It was during this season that our founder, Kaysie, named her desire to return to a more creative role instead of managing all the systems that keep our infrastructure running. She missed the proximity to clients and design, and deeply enjoyed companioning the nonprofit leaders within the leader care retreats.
We found ourselves in a new season of growth and faith for Homes & Havens, a season that reminded us how far we had come – and also what goodness is ahead of us! Stay tuned for the next blog post coming tomorrow with an exciting announcement!
