By Shelley Widhalm
The Surveyor

Each year the Berthoud Weekly Surveyor kicks off the holiday season by highlighting opportunities for gratitude and giving. This is the third installment of a five-part series, each week featuring an organization that provides services to members of our community.

Berthoud HNS plans to move into an official life center building by 2025, as long as funds are raised, to meet a growing demand for services.
Until then, the life center operating out of Grace Place Church will continue to provide services on Tuesdays and Thursdays and offer the traditional lineup of holiday provisions.

“The need of people coming in is increasing,” said Jinger Tomassi, assistant director of the Berthoud HNS, in operation since 1989. “The high cost of rent in the community is taking up such a large portion of their income, they’re struggling to make ends meet. In Berthoud, close to 98% of what we do is to help prevent homelessness, to keep people in their houses and help them make ends meet.”

House of Neighborly Service has a $6.3 million campaign underway with $5 million left to raise—$600,000 was used to purchase a three-acre property near Welch Avenue and Berthoud Parkway in the Berthoud Commons. The rest will cover the cost of constructing a 20,000-square-foot, two-story building to house the Berthoud HNS and up to 10 partner agencies in the Berthoud Life Center, plus meeting spaces for community use, including a conference room, meeting room and event area. Currently, there are three core partner agencies operating on Tuesdays alongside Berthoud HNS at Grace Place.

The funding for the Berthoud Life Center so far has come from naming rights, grants and individual donations and the aim is to do everything debt-free.

“The need is great, and we’re ready. The town development procedures we already went through and we have construction documents in place,” Tomassi said.

Last year, Berthoud HNS served an average of 21 households a day and this year, that number is up by 24%. During the first nine months of 2022, the agency handled 1,550 household visits and during the same period in 2023, visit numbers are at 1,880.

Berthoud HNS provides food baskets; rent, mortgage and utility assistance; prescription and gas vouchers; resource connections to the services it doesn’t offer; and application assistance to navigate and apply for those services. There also are clothing vouchers for the Loveland Life Center, which families can use to shop at the clothing boutique there.

For families, there also is a Parents As Teachers program to help them navigate parenting and free one-on-one tutoring for students.
In the area of food, Berthoud HNS provided nearly 66,000 pounds of food to clients last year and is on track to beat that number this year.
“These services are so important because crisis is a part of life,” said Cherri Houle, executive director of the Loveland and Berthoud HNS Life Centers. “That preventative piece has to be in place in a community; otherwise, people face homelessness … and you get the snowball effect and families fall apart. We want to come in before some of those things happen.”

Though it sounds simple, the idea is to help neighbors in need, Houle said. “We’re here to help at those critical points,” Houle said. “We’re creating a kinder, more neighborly community through resources, help and hope.”

The holidays are a busy time for offering help with additional services to make them extra special. On Nov. 21, HNS Berthoud distributed Thanksgiving baskets to clients that will have a turkey and the fixings. For Christmas, there will be baskets with a choice of turkey or ham that will be distributed Dec. 12-21. Also during Christmas, a toy store will be set up at the life center so that parents can shop for gifts for their children.

The community pitches in with individual donations and holiday food and toy drives, plus donations of gift cards, Tomassi said.

“It’s a super fun time that we can come together and bless others through the season,” Tomassi said.

Berthoud HNS is funded 45% through individual donations, plus grants, foundations and partnerships and operates with a staff of 36 and 160 volunteers.

In 2024, the nonprofit will hold a fundraiser coinciding with its 35 years of operation to continue to support operations and services.

“The community cares and understands we all go through crisis and we need a caring place to send people,” Houle said.
Berthoud HNS is open for services 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday.