Give People a Fighting Chance

An interview with Melinda Taylor, Founder and Executive Director of BLOOMHERE

I’m excited to introduce the people and the stories behind StepUp. I’ve been chatting with board members, partners, participants and volunteers about their involvement in StepUp and have quickly learned that no matter what capacity it is that people come to StepUp, they walk away transformed. – Chelsea Thomas, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, StepUp Ministry

Melinda: I’m Melinda and I’m the founder and Executive Director of BLOOMHERE. I started BLOOMHERE in June of 2018 and we opened our first house last year in August.

Can you provide more background on your motivation behind starting BLOOMHERE?

Melinda: We provide housing, health care and a community for women survivors of abuse, addiction, trafficking, and it's all at no cost to the residents. So, what we're doing is helping hold space for these women to heal and restore themselves. By giving them rent, dental and mental free, it truly is helpful for someone to holistically heal. And then, while they're in the house, we also have a justice enterprise, which is BLOOMHERE body oils, where the women make body oils and get paid a fair wage at $15 an hour.

What prompted you to come up with the concept for BLOOMHERE?

Melinda: When I turned 38, I discovered that there was some childhood trauma that I had experienced. During that time, I was in Raleigh, and I got to go to the best therapist, I got to go to yoga, I got to buy new clothes, I got to get my hair done, I got to go home every day to a nice house and sleep and do all the things that you need to heal and recover when something traumatic has happened to you. So, I started to really think “How do women that don't have the means heal?” And I really started diving into what Raleigh has to offer women.

That’s an important question to ask– what does it look like for people who don't have access to all those opportunities and what does it looks like for that to change?

Melinda: We have the abundance to provide people the opportunity to heal and thrive, but collectively, I can't do this on my own. I mean, we have incredible donors who have been with us since 2018, we got to hire this year, one of my friends was like, “Oh, I have a townhome that I'll let you rent.” So BLOOMHERE wouldn’t be without the community of all these incredible people. And I think now more than ever with COVID … we’ve got to give people a fighting chance.

How do partnerships with other nonprofits in the community help to support your work?

Melinda: StepUp, Angus Barn and Wake Tech are our three biggest partners that we use… and we have a great volunteer crew. They do so much for us. The biggest nonprofit that we partner with is StepUp, which we love, because StepUp offers so much of the life skills programming, which is what we needed. One of the things we were going to provide was life skills classes, but once we found out about StepUp, I was like, “Oh, why would we do that when someone's been doing it for plus amount of years. Let's go here.” Once talking to Linda, I knew immediately that this would be the program that we'll continue to use for the duration of our program.

Nonprofits have a really unique role in communities where they have opportunities to have differentiated missions, collaborative partnerships and the ability to address the bigger systems at play. What does that look like to you?

Melinda: I feel like for us, we work together by sharing resources and best practices. And by educating our local leaders on what the community needs. We're ground level and we know exactly what's going on. I love to share information, I feel that that's the only way we're going to be able to grow. One of the largest nonprofits in Nashville, Tennessee gave me their whole entire handbook, which literally allowed us to up our game. I was able to help women survive two years beforehand by someone saying, “Hey, we've done this for 20 years, here's the playbook.” If we're all riding the same bus together, the more we help each other move in the same direction, the better off we would be.

What is the biggest lesson BLOOMHERE has learned in the past year?

Melinda: To trust truly, to hold onto our mission and to trust that our community will hold us up. And to not live in a place of fear. The community has our back.

Visit the BLOOMHERE website to learn more: https://www.bloom-here.org/