Hands to Hearts program offers volunteer labor to residents who need help tackling home projects
By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
For the past year and a half Chris Segroves has been quietly leading groups of volunteers around Cheney, doing odd jobs for low-income homeowners who need a little help.
Hands to Hearts is a ministry of the Cheney Faith Center. Volunteers from the church complete monthly projects on homes that need a little work. Segroves has worked as a contractor for several years, and said he saw a need in the local community for donated help around some homes. He said he hoped to gather a group of people from the church congregation to work on eligible homes, helping homeowners improve their lives while spreading a positive message in the community.
When Segroves approached pastor Mark Posthuma about his idea, Hands to Hearts was born.
“This was a brand new way to reach our community,” Posthuma said. “It was in my heart and it was in Chris's heart and once we talked it was like, oh yeah. We've got to do this.”
This past Saturday, the group completed their 16th project.
“We've done everything from cleaning people's yards up to emptying out and repainting their house to reroofing a lady's house,” Segroves said.
The program provides donated labor and supplies to homeowners who have a problem and don't have the resources to fix it themselves.
“You drive around and you see needs and you wonder, could that person use our help,” Posthuma said. “What we have found is when we approach them, they don't have the talents or the tools or sometimes the finances or whatever it takes to make their property what they'd like it to be, and we get to come along and help them with that.”
Since its inception, Hands to Hearts has relied on suggestions from parishioners to find people who need the help. Now, Segroves and Posthuma are reaching outside the church community to try to reach more residents who could benefit from the program.
“We want the non-faith based community to know we're here,” Posthuma said, adding that while volunteers may talk to homeowners about their faith, the ministry is not focused on bringing new people to the church. “If the door opens that we can bring Christ into their life, great. If they never come to our church, at least they know that they're cared about.”
To be eligible for a project, an individual must own their home and they must meet some loose income requirements. Depending on the individual situation, some homeowners are asked to chip in for part of the cost of supplies for the project.
“Our main focus is to look at the situation that they're in and decide on that,” Segroves said. “It's simple. If there's a need here, let's fill it.”
A small leadership team reads through packets that are filled out by the homeowner, and then they meet with individual homeowners to outline projects, Segroves said. The team then puts the project on the schedule based on the resources needed, how long it will take to plan and other factors like weather.
Most projects are completed in a day, while some require prep work a day or two in advance. On project days, a group of 15-30 volunteers gathers at the site and gets to work. Segroves said one of the tenants of Hands to Hearts is to work with a “happy heart.”
“It can be so easy to say, ‘Oh, I'm giving up my Saturday and it's hard work,'” he said. “That's one thing we've asked of the volunteers, was that they do everything with a happy heart and be respectful to the other people who are there.”
Hands to Hearts has been successful, the men said, not just as a ministry for the church and a service to those in need, but for the community as a whole.
Segroves said that often neighbors confront them when they arrive at a site, asking what they're doing there.
“You can see they might be coming at you with a hard heart. Then you explain to them what you're doing and the change, you can see the change immediately,” Segroves said. “They say, ‘Oh, really? You're doing this for free? For nothing?'”
He said that the homeowner is proud of their property and neighbors are happy about the improved look of their neighborhood. Segroves said he hoped that residents who witnessed Hands to Hearts in action would be encouraged to help each other more in the future.
Hands to Hearts is currently accepting applications from Cheney homeowners who have a project they need help with. Segroves said he hopes to coordinate the program for as long as there's a need, and Posthuma said he doesn't expect the need to go away any time soon.
“I think we're heading socially to a place where the government has less and less ability to care for needs and the church will have to take over those needs,” he said. “You get back to more grassroots help, neighbors helping neighbors, churches helping people. We've gotten away from that. This is a great way for us to come in and say, let's make this a great community. Let's make this a great town.”
For more information, call Cheney Faith Center at 235-4282.
Becky Thomas can be reached at becky@cheneyfreepress.com.
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