Nearly seven years ago, people across the Monadnock Region found themselves asking the same question many communities ask in difficult moments: What can we do?
It was the summer of 2019. People seeking asylum were being detained at the border. It was not safe for them to return to their home countries due to violence, instability, and real threats to their lives. Children were being taken from their parents, and families were separated as a result of federal enforcement policies. Images and recordings of children in detention centers spread across the country, and for many it became a moment that was impossible to ignore.
After a rally on the Keene town square protesting the treatment of people at the border, community members decided they wanted to do something more than protest. They met week after week, sharing ideas, learning together, and searching for a response that matched both their community’s needs and its resources.
It became clear to them that people needed somewhere to land as they navigated the long and uncertain asylum process. Children belonged with their parents. Families did not belong in detention, but in our communities. This is still true today.
From that larger gathering, a core team of committed volunteers emerged to create what would become Project Home. Together they established the organization as a nonprofit with an intentionally collaborative structure, believing that leadership should be shared and that everyone had something to contribute.
The organization’s first three-person leadership team was Susan Hay, Judy Reed, and Katie Schwerin. Reed remembers it was difficult to get a word in edgewise as all three women not only had leadership experience but were the oldest siblings in their families. She recalls singing a song called “I Love a Bossy Woman,” and in their coming together, the early seeds of Project Home were planted not only in activism but in joy.
Project Home ultimately decided to welcome people to the Monadnock Region, beginning with five individuals or families. They would provide legal services, food, clothing, and shelter until guests could obtain work authorization and begin building independent lives. It felt like something they could do.
Providence seemed to be on their side. One of the earliest volunteers had a home available. Then, in February 2020, during a New Hampshire snowstorm, Project Home welcomed its first family of five.
That first family would not be the last. Over the years, residents stepped forward in ways both large and small. Volunteers furnished apartments, drove guests to appointments, helped children enroll in school, connected families with resources, and offered friendship during what was often a long and uncertain process.
Along the way, Project Home learned from its successes, its mistakes, and from other organizations doing similar work. Most of all, it learned from its guests, because a community knows what it needs.
Today, many people are once again feeling a deep sense of concern about what is happening around us. Across the country, immigration enforcement has increased significantly, with more arrests, expanded operations, and a growing backlog of asylum cases that leaves families in prolonged uncertainty. For many, it raises a familiar and deeply human question: When we see people in vulnerable situations, what can we do?
Project Home still does not have all the answers. But co-founder Susan Hay, who passed away in 2025, often reminded volunteers that even in a complex world, the most important truths remain simple. For thousands of years, we have known that people should be safe, free, and treated with dignity. Children should be fed, sheltered, and safe. Parents should be able to trust that their children will have access to education and medical care. Some will always find reasons why this cannot be true for everyone. At Project Home, organizers do not accept that.
From the beginning, Project Home decided to take action even when it was imperfect. Action creates possibility. It brings people together and reminds us that we are not powerless in the face of difficult problems.
This year, Project Home launched the Bigger Table Fund in honor of Hay and the vision she helped build. Her famous tattoo read “Build Bigger Tables,” inspired by the saying urging those with more than they need to build longer tables, not higher walls. To this end, the fund supports housing, legal services, and essential needs for individuals and families seeking safety and stability as they build new lives in our community.
Hay never did this work alone. One of the things she taught the community was how to ask for help. She was quick to mobilize others, asking people to step in, give what they could, and build something together.
Nearly seven years after that first gathering on the square in Keene, Project Home’s answer to “What can we do?” remains the same: We can welcome people, build community, and make a difference, one family at a time.
Community members interested in supporting the organization’s work can volunteer, make a contribution to the Bigger Table Fund, or learn more about Project Home’s programs and current needs at projecthomenh.org.
Project Home is a grassroots organization that helps asylum seekers transition from detention centers into local communities and homes while they await their asylum hearings.
