Twelve years ago Karin Krause called the Small Business Development Center to find out how to launch her dream. Today, after three dead ends , a lot of second guessing, and many miracles, her dream is starting to take shape in an old farmhouse on the west side of Madison.
Many times she questioned whether she should give up or keep going. “It was awful,” she said. “You can’t get it out of your head and and you can’t get it going. But we knew God was with us. We never could have done it if we didn’t believe that.”
The First Neighborhood
The seeds of Karin’s dream go back to her childhood, growing up in a single parent home in a small town. She had a neighbor who she called grandma. When Karin got home from school and grandma noticed Karin’s mother wasn’t home she always called Karin to come and help her with something.
A few years later grandma was in a nursing home and Karin went to visit. She was disturbed by the impersonal treatment that she saw given to this woman she loved so deeply. She believes her decision to become a nurse grew from that visit and her desire to better understand people’s needs.
But she also began to develop a vision for replicating the kind of intergenerational neighborhood where people of all ages worked and played together, and cared for each other. She began to put together plans for an adult family home project that eventually got the name “Hope and a Future.”
The first step was purchasing a property for an adult family home, with extra space on the property for community events such as music, crafts, gardening, and recreation. Step two is developing housing for healthy seniors who want to be involved in the caring community. Step three is developing rental housing for young at risk families in need of mentoring and support services.
Nine Years of Trials
After her SBDC consultation Karin endured nine years of trials with little discernible progress and lots of disappointments. At one point the board she had assembled to oversee the nonprofit operation fell apart.
“We had to step out in faith that God was in this,” Karin said. It helped when God kept arranging meetings with key people. “The vision has stayed the same.”
When she needed the backing of a key business woman God arranged for the woman to sit beside Karin at a meeting both were attending. When the perfect property for the project was identified, a yellow farm house on South High Point Road, a businessman bought it and sold it to Karin on a land contract with no down payment.
Now that the vision is starting to materialize, interest is growing. Some local pastors have offered encouragement. A fellowship group at High Point Church has adopted “Hope and a Future” to help out with some of the needed repairs. Volunteers from City Church, where Karin and her family attend, have also pitched in.
Interest is also growing at the University of Wisconsin where a geriatric research unit has just begun. “I know first hand there are benefits (to inter-generation activities) but we need to know why,” Karin said.
The Potluck Experience
Some of those experiences occurred at inter-generational pot luck dinners which became a tradition when Karin began to provide long term care for the elderly at the Krause family home in Middleton. Food, music, and fellowship attracted up to 70 people at a time to their ranch house on Branch Street.
Karin was surprised when street people with mohawks and piercings showed up. “We heard there was music, and food, and great conversation,” they told her. She was also surprised that her teen age daughters stayed home and enjoyed those evenings as much as anyone. “Why would I miss this?” one told her.
The Krause Family Band, which plays local venues, got its start at those potlucks. The band features Karin’s husband Rick, daughters Ruthie and Katie, and other local musicians. They also play for occasionial worship services at City Church and have appeared with Garrison Keillor on his Prairie Home Companion radio program on several occasions.
The pot lucks stopped when they got so popular that the local police department stopped by to check on traffic problems. And now Karin and her family have their hands full bringing their dream to fruition. “It’s a lot of fun but it’s also tiring,” she said.
There’s a long list of remodeling projects that need doing, and groundbreaking was held in September for a four bedroom addition. Many times over the past 12 years Karin has wondered whether her dream would happen. But she decided not to quite on her dream and now it’s taking shape.
For more information, the Hope & a Future website is available, as well as a Facebook page.