Article by Gwen Jones, Department of Family Services
(Posted 2024 April)
Rebuilding Together Arlington/Fairfax/Falls Church (Rebuilding Together-AFF) is a nonprofit organization that provides free home repairs to homeowners living on a limited income, with priority given to older adults, people with disabilities, and families with children. The goal of every repair or modification they make is to improve the health, safety, and accessibility of the home.
Most of the work done by Rebuilding Together-AFF is through their RT Express Program, created to deliver 40 common repairs selected for their significant health and safety benefits. The repairs focus on falls prevention, fire safety, moisture and ventilation, security, and energy updates. Some of their most common modifications include installing grab bars, double stair rails, comfort height toilets and brighter lighting.
Volunteers are the backbone of Rebuilding Together-AFF. Nearly all the repairs and modifications are completed by teams of skilled volunteers. Most repairs are completed in less than a day by a team of four or five volunteers. Each team is led by an RT Express team leader who oversees each project – joining staff in assessing each home in determining what fixes are needed, to completing the repairs and modifications.
David Throckmorton recently became an RT Express team leader after volunteering with Rebuilding Together-AFF for three years. Like many of their volunteers, he is used to doing his own home repairs and possesses a lot of useful skills – electrical, plumbing, drywall, carpentry, and painting. Since joining the team, he’s learned new skills, such as how to install a grab bar on a tile wall. More importantly, he now understands and appreciates the value of installing grab bars and second handrails, saying “Everybody I have done that for, including my parents, loves them. It’s just nice to be able to grab a handrail on each side. It really steadies them, and they love it.”
In his role as an RT Express team leader, Throckmorton’s job is to gather tools and needed supplies, assign tasks to the volunteers on his team, and help troubleshoot any problems that come up. He enjoys the camaraderie that has developed among the volunteers. He also likes the challenge of solving problems that arise while working on older homes, saying, “You’re trying to do replacement and repair on a 60- or 70-year-old house with new stuff which the house might not be ready for, so you have to think, how will I make this work?”
Throckmorton’s favorite aspect of his work with Rebuilding Together-AFF is the response from the homeowners. “If a light switch is not working, we replace the light switch. It’s easy to do and the person is happy because all of a sudden, they have a working light again. It’s those type of jobs where the homeowner just goes ‘Oh I’m so happy, I’m so happy’ and it makes me happy,” he says.
Bob Austin has been volunteering with Rebuilding Together-AFF for over 20 years and was one of the founding RT Express team leaders when the program launched in 2015. He first learned of the nonprofit when he joined fellow church members to help repair a home on National Rebuilding Day. Like David Throckmorton, Austin is experienced in home repair, skills he learned while assisting his dad with home improvement projects. He appreciates how much he’s learned from working with other volunteers on a wide variety of projects. His new skills have come in handy when making repairs to his own home.
Austin credits his years as a Boy Scout leader for his ability to organize people and projects and get things done. He typically works on one or two projects each week and appreciates that he can pick and choose projects that fit his schedule.
For Austin, the most enjoyable part about volunteering with Rebuilding Together-AFF is the opportunity to use his skills to help people in need, especially older adults. “Many times, these people are my neighbors, they live in my neighborhood. You don’t know who needs help until you get involved,” he says. Many of the people they serve are older people who live on a fixed income, without the means or know-how to make repairs. In many cases, a simple repair can make a world of difference to the homeowner. Austin recently replaced the outlets in the kitchen of an older man who lived alone. The outlets had been broken for several years, so the homeowner was grateful to be able to plug in his coffee pot and microwave again.
Another life-changing modification that Rebuilding Together-AFF makes to some homes is installing donated stairlifts. A skilled volunteer overhauls each stairlift to put it in top shape. Because they can be reused repeatedly, Rebuilding Together-AFF volunteers have started applying stickers to the stairlifts, asking to be contacted when the homeowner no longer needs the device, ensuring that it will be put to good use in another home.
Austin has witnessed firsthand the difference a stairlift can make in the life of a homeowner. He recalls installing one in the home of a woman who was unable to climb stairs after suffering a stroke. She hadn’t been able to go upstairs for five years, so she had to rely on sponge baths since her main floor only had a half bath. After the Rebuilding Together-AFF team installed the stairlift in her home, and they were gathering up their tools to leave, Austin and the other volunteers searched for the woman to say goodbye. Finally, one of the volunteers realized she was upstairs running a bath, ecstatic to finally be able to use her bathtub again.
In addition to their RT Express projects, Rebuilding Together-AFF hosts National Rebuilding Day annually, on the last Saturday in April. This year National Rebuilding Day falls on Saturday, April 27. Many of the projects planned for National Rebuilding Day are more extensive than RT Express projects and will utilize larger volunteer groups, including faith-based groups and employees of Rebuilding Together-AFF’s corporate partners.
If you would like to learn more about Rebuilding Together-AFF’s program or apply, call 703-528-1999, email info@rebuildingtogether-aff.org, or visit rebuildingtogether-aff.org. To learn more about volunteering with Rebuilding Together-AFF, visit rebuildingtogether-aff.org/volunteer.
This article is part of the Golden Gazette monthly newsletter which covers a variety of topics and community news concerning older adults and caregivers in Fairfax County. Are you new to the Golden Gazette? Don’t miss out on future newsletters! Subscribe to get the electronic or free printed version mailed to you. Have a suggestion for a topic? Share it in an email or call 703-324-GOLD (4653).