Building Castles and Foundations

January 15, 2009

Jim Grusecki and his wife Brenda have a passion for supportive housing, which connects supportive services such as employment resources and counseling to affordable or subsidized housing. Jim is chairman & CEO of Northern Builders, Inc., and Brenda is a retired high school English teacher and university educator. Through their family foundation, they are supporting the construction of the Community Academy in the Roosevelt Square mixed-income housing development, in which Heartland Alliance is a partner. Additionally they are providing enhanced funding for services to our family supportive housing development. Jim Grusecki shares his thoughts about these gifts.

How did you get involved with supportive housing in Chicago?

Several years ago Iserved a relatively brief tour of duty as a single parent to four teenagers. During that time Ihad the support of family and friends, but Istill had many challenges. Then when Ifirst became involved in philanthropy, Iwanted to work on housing for other single-parent families that have to get by without the support that Iwas fortunate to have had.

What led you to Heartland Alliance?

Brenda and Iwent to a conference in New York on family philanthropy, and we learned of a transformational housing center in Rochester, New York. This sounded exactly like something we wanted to promote. We returned to Chicago and, with the help of a consultant, researched housing organizations for three years. We met Sid Mohn, Heartland Alliance's president, and Sid enthusiastically embraced the concept of "transformational housing" as opposed to "transitional housing." Thus, the concept of supportive housing together with an academy was undertaken. Furthermore, Heartland Alliance appealed to us as a highly professional, well organized, financially strong organization with a sustainable mission and goals.

Was there anything particular about the Roosevelt Square community that drew you to this particular effort?

Roosevelt Square is a development that visualizes hope! It is very exciting for residents to live on the 50-yard line between the job opportunities made available at the hospital and university, and the job opportunities represented by the skyline of downtown Chicago. It's a place to dream dreams that can be fulfilled.

What do you hope is the impact of your gift in the community?

We would like to help single-parent families have the opportunity to stabilize and improve their family unit in a safe environment.

You're also involved in various not-for-profit organizations in the city and suburbs such as Family Service and Mental Health Center of Oak Park and River Forest, and Victory Gardens Theater. Given that you have interest in education and the arts, how do you make connections between them and the housing and social service programs you support?

Brenda and Ihave been able to provide links between some of the organizations we support. For example, we recently helped to arrange for Victory Gardens Theater to donate season tickets for residents at a women's shelter who have demonstrated an interest in reading and the theater. Our foundation provides for transportation and dinner after the plays. We're also providing grants for similar opportunities to two Hispanic children's educational programs.

As Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden's Pond, "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."

Children may find dreams for their future in the theater, so we support that. But we also want to help build the necessary foundation under them with the Community Academy in Roosevelt Square. With a child, you never know when a seed you planted will germinate and grow. There could be something in a play that takes root five years from now and changes that life.

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