Getting to Know Our County

Kent County, from the perspective of a student, begins at one location. Chestertown - in all of its rurality - its shops downtown and the few eateries you can find, seem to be what students hear about. It’s not the history of Kent County - the last county to integrate. Or that it’s a county with a 12% poverty rate and placed first out of all the Maryland counties for the deep poverty rate in 2020 (deep poverty indicates a household living below 50% the region's area median income).

I initially learned these facts about the county while helping to secure funding for the Kent County Housing Survey - and still as I continue to work on it, I find it absurd how truly little we know about such a small and tight-knit community. And, what we do know from the most recent government data about housing has been proven wrong time and time again by the need for organizations like Rebuilding Together Kent County (RTKC), who have been in operation for 20 years, dedicating volunteer and contractor efforts to provide crucial home repairs for folks.

RTKC knows that the need and the census data do not match up - but does the county know? Do the people know? Visibility and representation of the true needs of the county are vital in creating necessary change. With the data we get from the survey, RTKC will have a stronger case to secure funding needed for better housing in Kent County, and it will be available for others to use in their efforts to help our community thrive.

We as a county cannot get better if we don’t know where the problems are and what our neighbors truly need. As we rely on grant funding and donations to provide critical repairs for homeowners - one of the things that goes undiscussed is the limitations of what we as a non-profit can do. Of our applicants, many of them apply multiple times. It's sometimes a consistent process of seeing what needs to be done, repairing what our funding allows us to, and making sure we keep up that relationship with the homeowner as they ask us for more repairs down the road. Our hope is one day, that we can help each neighbor to the degree that they need us during one project cycle, rather than piecemeal. Housing is an essential part of one’s livelihood. It determines not only your physical well-being, but also your mental well-being. It’s an image so intertwined with one’s selfhood.

By Caryl Townsend

From Intern to Staff

Working with Rebuilding Together Kent County has been such an amazing opportunity to feel more integrated and involved with this community. I am forever grateful to Washington College for setting up my initial internship with Genevieve, as now I am a fully involved staff member. It’s really important for me (as I think it should be for everyone), to give back time and resources to a place that has been so rewarding both academically and socially. Knowing neighbors in my own circles that would benefit from services like the ones RTKC provides, has shown me just how crucial Rebuilding Together truly is. But the most important lesson that I will continue to advocate for wherever I go, is that everyone deserves a safe and healthy home.

As an intern, my main responsibility was to help design a county-wide survey dedicated to understanding the true housing stock of our area, filling in a lot of the missing data that is not captured by the Census. With this data, RTKC will be able to share a more accurate picture of the true condition of available housing, providing a real target that we can share with grantmakers, donors and policy makers. Not only this, but the data from this survey will be accessible to other community nonprofits who can use it to inform their own important work.

Starting this summer, I have been working full time for the non-profit as an Administrative Assistant, as well as continuing my original mission of creating and helping to implement the housing survey. My job encompasses many tasks, but one I am especially proud of is assisting neighbors as they complete the beginning stages of their application. I am excited to continue these pursuits, and continue my own efforts to support and uplift the community we share in whatever way I can. I am continuously amazed by how Rebuilding Together Kent County continues to grow while supporting a collective that is almost entirely volunteers, and I’m so thankful for Denise and Genevieve throughout these first stages of this journey.

By Caryl Townsend