Down Home was a passion project born out of compassion and a love for community. Founders Jake and Jenessa Fillipi both grew up in small towns which functioned on the down-home values of supporting each other in times of need for the betterment of the whole community. After marrying in 2002, both Jake and Jenessa took on roles which would lead them to founding Down Home. Jake, a handyman, often worked in the spaces which families emerging from homelessness would reside in. Through this, he saw that these families often did not have the most basic necessities of a home including beds to sleep in, couches to rest on, or tables to eat at. As a school counselor, Jenessa saw firsthand the negative effects that homelessness and the lack of basic necessities had on the lives of these families and their children. Coming together with their experiences and passion for serving others, they began taking action to fill this gap and founded Down Home in 2017. Down Home served its first family on December 23rd, 2017 in partnership with Churches United for the Homeless. Since then Down Home has served 60+ families with the help of partnering organizations and the support of the community.
Down Home’s mission is to empower lives by furnishing the homes of families and individuals emerging from homelessness. Through its mission, Down Home hopes to see a community where everyone lives in a supported, stable, and nurturing home. Down Home turns an empty space into a home to embrace, feel secure, and empower families and individuals to break the cycle of homelessness. All of this is done through the values of faith, dignity, compassion, hope, integrity, and collaboration.