Today, we’d like to introduce you to Kaitlin Verkaik from Love Your Neighbor.
Hi Kaitlin, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Love Your Neighbor started 40 years ago as a Love INC, offering transportation to medical appointments and food to those who needed it. It’s purpose – to help the church show Christ’s love, when they didn’t know how. Over time, this non-profit slowly grew into a partnership of volunteers, churches, and businesses who simply want to love others and help those who are struggling in our community.
Today, we are a 40 year old nonprofit with a new name- Love Your Neighbor. In 2021, we disaffiliated from Love INC and became Love Your Neighbor, revamping our mission statement to align with what we had already been doing for years- Following Jesus Christ, who transforms lives, we equip our community to love, serve and connect with dignity. This shift allows us to continue serving locally, but with less strict boundaries and more local control. We also can live into the way we had been serving – elevating the dignity of each person we meet – as we have seen the impact this has made on those we serve, and on those serving.
Serving from an asset-based approach is what sets us apart. We don’t ignore need, but we don’t let need define the person – believing all of us are in need of help and can be better off from the contributions of others.
Our core program, Life Skills, averages 40 families year round from Ottawa and Kent counties, and offers a community where local families can grow their capacity to thrive – financially, relationally and spiritually. Each person can grow while earning critical resources such as groceries, gas, car repair, housing stipends, transitional housing, low-interest loan programs, professional counseling and more. Plus, a one-on-one relationship with a peer support helps each participant achieve their personal goals.
We also still provide those transportation rides to medical appointments, and offer free loans of medical equipment – over 100 items in just one week recently! Many different facets of the ministry are happening in order to support the long term Life Skills Program – a value of $13,000 for just one family.
With just 20 staff and 400+ volunteers, our organization includes 5 Life Skills programs, a large donation intake center, and local resale stores where you can volunteer or shop to give back.
We continue to remain true to our mission while being agile enough to offer new resources when there are new community needs. For example, our newest resource, Group Therapy for Anxiety and Depression (available for anyone) and our emergency food pantry available to the Ottawa County Sherriff’s Department 24/7.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Our staff was impacted after participating in a 6-week training called “Serving With Dignity.” This biblical training teaches you how to serve from an asset-based approach where all are helping and all are receiving – AND you are ENJOYING it. Taking service from a project to a life posture is a paradigm shift and allowed us to analyze each of our ministry areas. Were we serving in a dignified way? Were we helping ourselves or those in need? Was anyone being harmed? These hard questions led to some huge shifts in our staff culture and over years, our volunteer culture.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Our nonprofit is “different” in it’s approach to helping. We prioritize relationships over transactions. We want to walk alongside as peers as much as possible. We want to teach our community that it’s okay to ask for help. We want ourselves and others to realize we all need help and have built in resources and support that many others don’t have. All of us are better living in community than isolation. Our campus provides access to a program and critical resources that help local families thrive, but it also is a central hub for a community of volunteers who have now found purpose in what they do each day – volunteers are also being transformed as they serve others- being blessed in the process.
We believe every person has something to offer and we welcome all people to be part of Love Your Neighbor.
Our organization is now a certified facilitator for the training, Serving With Dignity, and offers it to local groups and churches who want to learn how to serve in an asset-based approach, break down their stereotypes and serve in a way that looks like Jesus.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lovewm.org
- Instagram: loveyourneighbormmi
- Facebook: loveyourneighbormi
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@loveyourneighbor2765
