NLFW Wants to Partner With Contractors

NeighborLink Fort Wayne wants to partner with licensed home repair, construction, plumbing, masonry, and electrical contractors for this unique home repair program. 

There are two main reasons why NeighborLink projects don’t get completed. 

1. Lack of Funds
2. Lack of Skilled Labor

In an effort to reduce the amount of projects that go unmet each year due to these two factors, we are launching a new pilot project in partnership with the Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services. This project will allow us to leverage their resources in order to hire qualified, licensed and skilled contractors for the projects our volunteers would like to do, but can’t do. There are few things harder for committed volunteers to do than to tell a recipient that they cannot help them with their request. 

Here is an example of what partnering with NeighborLink could look like on a roofing project. 

Rather than hiring your entire team to do the project, we would like to hire you to do all the technical project planning, provide specific roofing tools, and provide one skilled staff person. We would then take care of purchasing all the materials and providing as many volunteers as needed to complete the project. 

How Each Project Will Work: 

• NeighborLink Coach selects a project & determines they need a contractor to work with them on the project. 
• NeighborLink staff verify the need and begin the process of qualifying the recipient. 
• NeighborLink Coach reviews the preferred contractor list on our website and gets three bids for the project. 
• Bid is approved, work day(s) get scheduled, and Coach begins securing volunteers and materials using NeighborLink project funds. 
• Contractor submits invoice for payment to NeighborLink staff. 

We understand that there are great people running great home repair related companies in Fort Wayne who would like to help people in tough situations, but cannot afford to do work for free. 

We’re not asking you to give any more than you’re comfortable and feeling called to give. We want long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with our partners at NeighborLink. 

There are some qualifications and requirements that each contractor must meet in order for us to qualify for these funds from the City of Fort Wayne. Below are links to documents that relate to these qualifications. 

The next step if you are interested is to contact:

Andrew Hoffman, Executive Director

Andrew@nlfw.org

260.710.7611