Michelle Lipar, LMSW

Volunteer and Client Support Assistant

Michelle Lipar lives in Simsbury with her two children, husband and dogs.  She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in the 1900s with a BA in English and worked in the publishing industry for over 25 years.  In 2020, she decided to go back to school to get her Masters in Social Work at UCONN.  She interned at Journey Home during her second year of graduate school, and was hired earlier this year as the Volunteer and Community Support Assistant of their warehouse and volunteer program, A Hand Up.  She is a licensed master of social work and She is passionate about increasing access to safe and stable housing and ending homelessness, and she loves connecting with people and organizations who are interested in working towards similar goals.
 

 

Michelle Lipar discussed Journey Home, an organization that supports services for those experiencing housing crisis or homelessness. She talked about their goal to make experiences of homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring, and highlighted their program called "A Hand Up" which provides furniture and household items to those moving out of homelessness and into housing.  Michael discussed volunteer opportunities with a group of people, including home makeovers, donation drives, and delivery/pickup days. He also explained how Journey Home helps people experiencing homelessness find and maintain stable housing with the support of funding and services.  Michael discussed how his organization picks up donations from people's houses in the greater Hartford region, but they require pictures and cannot take large items due to space and difficulty in moving them.

 

In the question and answer period, Lauren Gardner commented on the positive impact of volunteering with the organization had for adult residents in FOCUS's support services program and Linda Pendergast commented on her positive experience in donating to the organization.

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