New Beginnings: A Note from Richard Conn
Spring 2007
Spring is finally here and as we near our 16th year, I’ve been marveling at just how far we have come and how many new beginnings have been created. Reinforcing that idea, I want to take this time to announce my retirement from the position of Executive Director, effective June 30, 2007. After serving almost 32 years in the U.S. Air Force, my second great career opportunity appeared here at Partners in Housing. Since May 1993, I have been a very lucky guy, serving an organization whose mission brings great hope and self-sufficiency to homeless families with children on the Front Range. Having helped raise three daughters and knowing their challenges and vulnerabilities is probably one of the most important reasons that I have been able to so completely identify with our mission.
Although Partners in Housing has come a long way since the days of our residency in the little bungalow next to the Marian House Soup Kitchen, I will forever be grateful to Catholic Charities and the Diocese of Colorado Springs for creating the vision of Partners in Housing, giving us our start, and for the continuous and generous support of our program. We have grown the organization almost ten-fold, with the capacity to serve over 70 homeless families with children, and provide an equal number of families and individuals earning less than half of the area median income with decent, affordable housing. Progress continues, as we prepare to move to the beautiful grounds of Myron Stratton, adding housing and programs at the same site. There is much more to do to help even more homeless families achieve self-sufficiency, and I am convinced we are well-positioned to do it.
Partners in Housing is fiscally sound, has a solid property equity position, is professionally staffed with low turnover, has a dedicated Board for guidance and oversight, has developed loyal donors, volunteers, and other agency partners, and a deep, holistic self-sufficiency program with high-quality housing in place to meet the needs of our “Partner” families.
I want to thank my current board and to say how very proud I am of our President, Chelley Gardner-Smith. What a great Partners in Housing success story she is! And a special thanks to my past leaders: Doug Carter, Chris Acker, Gary Kehr, Diane Dulworth, Mike Waters, Steve Price, Sherrie Vogt, and Gary Winegar. That’s a lot of bosses, but they each provided outstanding guidance, and most importantly, had confidence in me to provide the leadership required to make Partners in Housing a benchmark in the community against which other nonprofits could be measured. Each gave me the necessary freedom to manage and lead this great organization, something I will forever treasure.
The past 14 years serving as Executive Director have been wonderful, and my hope is to remain associated with Partners in Housing in a variety of ways.
Thanks a billion for your support, dedication, and friendship!
