Thursday, September 15, 2011

EMMANUEL HOUSE: The Next Chapter in the Story of Bryan House

Our Name May Have Changed, But our Purpose Remains:

Breaking the Cycle of Working-Class Poverty through Home-ownership
· Strengthening Family stability through home-ownership & savings;
· Strengthening Children through improved educational opportunities; and
· Strengthening Communities by increasing ownership & investment in neighborhoods
So Why the name Change?
Bryan House was our “test” model—and it worked! As we expand beyond a single, physical location, we are creating an organization with an expandable and reproducible model that has the power to impact not just individual families—and not just the City of Aurora—but any community that looks to the Emmanuel House model.
Why  the name “Emmanuel House”?
The name
“Emmanuel House” continues to honor our namesake, Bryan Emmanuel Guzman, but also helps identify the project as one that relies on the involvement of churches and the promise of “God with us.” And on a practical level, Emmanuel is a more commonly recognizable and universal name that carries the same meaning in multiple languages. This will serve us well both in our current expansion to East Aurora, parts of which are over 90% Hispanic—as well as in our future expansion as we eventually expand to more regional and/or distant communities.
What happened to “Bryan House?”
NOTHING! The original Bryan House is still going   strong! It will always be called Bryan House & will continue to serve refugees in Aurora.
But as we expand our focus to the broader population of the working-class poor, that effort will be done by “Emmanuel House Community Development Corporation (CDC)”


Meet the New Emmanuel House Staff
Left to Right: Rey Garrido, Jacqueline Arellano, Casey Barrette &
Volunteer Staff
: Rick & Desiree Guzman

Emmanuel House is rapidly expanding! Amazingly, we've made our model even more efficient by leveraging more partners and even more existing resources. Even with bringing on our first paid staff, our cost per family is still just $400/month or $13/day, which allows the typical family to save double that amount toward their dream of home-ownership.