The Less Obvious Problem on the Other Side of Homelessness

Years ago, Phil learned about the problem families sometimes have as they transition out of homelessness—they are in need of furniture.

Bridging is a furniture bank that aims to improve lives by providing quality furniture and household goods to those transitioning out of homelessness and poverty through the effective reuse of donated items.  They are a nonprofit organization serving the greater Twin Cities and are the largest furniture bank in North America.

For his Civic Engagement project, Phi decided to use his knowledge of process improvement through Lean based tools. Phil reports that he “spent about 15 hours conceptualizing, researching, volunteering my time, and socializing an initiative to share my expertise in Lean based process improvement initiatives with a furniture bank such as Bridging, Inc. to increase their capacity to help people transitioning out of homelessness.  A 5% increase in efficiency as a result of my efforts would translate to an additional 350 families receiving this support a year from Bridging.” However, Phil admits that he wasn’t able to really complete the practical application of this project. He writes, “It is my intent to continue my efforts after this class is done.  That is how I know the civic engagement project was a successful one – I’m eager to continue working on it long after the grade is in the books.