Habitat for Humanity is in executive director Michael Barb's DNA

Jul. 27—As the new executive director of Lake-Geauga Habitat for Humanity, Michael Barb plans to become part of the fabric of the community in both Lake and Geauga counties, he said.

After Jim Thie, previous executive director and board member for Lake-Geauga Habitat, retired, Barb assumed the position in April of this year after he and his family relocated from the Baltimore area.

"I appreciate all that he (Thie) did in laying the solid foundation for us to continue building on," Barb said. "He had a long history with Habitat for Humanity and stepped in, at a time when there was a void in the leadership, to steer the organization."

Prior to coming to Lake-Geauga Habitat, Barb served for Habitat for Humanity in the Baltimore area for close to 10 years. He reached a point in his career where he knew what he wanted to do for the remainder of his working years — be an executive director for a Habitat for Humanity affiliate.

"It's in my DNA and I enjoy this organization," Barb said. "It was a typical job search where the job was posted on, in this case, Indeed. We started the conversation, went through the typical interview process, I was offered the position and I accepted."

Although he is new to Northeast Ohio, Barb had an association with the Greater Cleveland area for a long time, going back to his childhood when he had relatives here and when he used to visit Geauga Lake as a kid.

"I was very familiar with Greater Cleveland, just not Lake and Geauga counties specifically," Barb said. "It's been fun and interesting already just to be out and about, learning the landscape and meeting different people throughout both counties."

For Barb, the connection to Habitat for Humanity goes back to Habitat's humble beginnings in Georgia, he said.

"Habitat was birthed out of a farm in South Georgia called Koinonia Farm," Barb said. "This sort of predated the civil rights movement. The idea was the spirit of Koinonia is the spirt of community and fellowship, and the idea we all belong to one big family or one humanity. Habitat was birthed out of the idea that we're going to work with you to build your home, you're going to pay a mortgage into the fund for humanity and that will go into building the next person's home. That will snowball over time."

Habitat was created to eliminate poverty around the world, a bold objective at the time of its beginnings, Barb said.

"Fast forward to today, and hundreds of thousands of homes have been built around the globe," he said. "We're just a small part of the story."

With both Lake and Geauga counties being different, having their own demographics and nuances, it's been fun to learn different things about both counties, Barb said. He will be starting Leadership Lake County next month and is looking forward to the opportunity, and taking a deep dive into all things Lake County, he said.

"I hope to do the same with the program in Geauga County next year," Barb said.

From an organizational goal perspective, Barb's drive is to have, throughout Lake and Geauga counties, low-income housing, he said.

"We want to continue building and want to be able to increase the number of homes per year that we're able to complete and partner with," Barb said. "At the same time, we want to increase our impact by increasing our home repair program. We're in the process of rebranding that program, and we will be completing more basic, critical repairs for homes. It may be geared partly toward helping seniors stay in their home and it may be focused on our military vets. Primarily, it's low- to moderate-income families who already have a home, but have a need for critical repairs that Habitat can help complete for a modest amount."

One of the things Barb realized right away when he got to Lake-Geauga Habitat was that the affiliate is nearing the milestone of completing its 100th home.

"Our theme over the next year or two is going to be, '100th Home and Beyond,' " Barb said. "We have completed 96 homes to date, so we're going to be campaigning and fundraising with this theme to hit that milestone within the next couple years along with dramatically increasing the number of repairs we're doing. Over time, we need to figure out what's doable in terms of the number of homes we can produce per year, but we certainly want to get that up to a double digit number per year so we can serve more families throughout the two counties."

When he talks about Habitat, Barb's approach is inviting people to be a part of someone else's story whether it's through the volunteer opportunities Habitat offers, financial contribution or corporate sponsorships.

"We want people to embrace the idea that we're all part of one humanity and everybody's our neighbor, and when you get invited to be a part of somebody else's story, your story starts to become interwoven with theirs," Barb said. "That's how, as a society, we begin to break through whatever separates us."