The boards of the Glory Hall and the Juneau Housing First Collaborative will merge, aiming to be complete with the process by the end of the fiscal year in July.
The boards decided it was a convenient time, said Glory Hall Board President Bruce Denton, who is also vice president of the Juneau Housing First Collaborative board.
“In my case, it means I cut my board meetings in half,” joked Denton. “It really speaks to the benefits of the whole thing. Our missions are very similar. The Glory Hall is already contracted to do all the things that happen at Housing First already. It’s kind of a no brainer.”
[Natural hairstyles bill passes Senate]
The project has been in the works for about a year, said Mandy Cole, president of the JHFC board and executive director of AWARE.
“It was noncontroversial. It fits so well and they’ve already been doing the work so it made sense to all the people involved,” Cole said in a phone interview. “Ultimately, I think, the fewer, stronger organizations we have in town the better. It’s not duplicating services.”
Anyone who wants a seat on the new board has been offered one, Cole said. Cole herself said she won’t be taking one. The Glory Hall will dissolve its nonprofit, Denton said, and be absorbed into the JHFC nonprofit.
“We’re going to change the name to Juneau Housing First Collaborative doing business as the Glory Hall,” Denton. “We think we’ve got all the details worked out. The Glory Hall doesn’t have any debt so there’s no really onerous grant requirements to deal with.”
Merger has been in the wings for some time, Denton said, though major project for both nonprofits have been in the way.
“We wanted to finish getting the new building built,” Denton said. “We were pretty focused for a number of years for getting Phase 1 developed and funded and built and Phase 2 developed and funded and built and the new Glory Hall developed and funded and built.”
Services will remain uninterrupted, Cole said.
“I don’t think any of the end users will notice any changes at all,” Cole said. “The staff at Forget-Me-Not Manor is already Glory Hall staff through contracts.”
Merging the boards will increase the efficiency of the organizations, in addition to reducing the board meetings, Denton said.
“The Juneau Housing First Collaborative board is very grateful to the Glory Hall Board,” Cole said. “I think this is a real sustainable path for the Forget-Me-Not Manor.”
• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.
