For Russ Gosselin, helping a family through a difficult day is important. Helping that same family build a better life for the months and years ahead is the bigger goal.
That's the idea behind Elevate Lives and its growing Elevate Center in Springfield.
The nonprofit works with individuals and families facing financial and housing challenges, with an emphasis on stability, education, coaching and mentoring. Its longtime message is simple: help people move “from surviving to thriving.”
“We're really focused on practical ways in which individuals and families have moved, like I said, from surviving to thriving, but moving the family forward,” Gosselin said.
Gosselin is founder and CEO of Elevate Lives and the Elevate Center.
The organization's work took a major step forward with the purchase of the former Robertson Elementary School from Springfield Public Schools.
The roughly 42,000- to 45,000-square-foot building now serves as the Elevate Center.
Gosselin said having that space allows Elevate to expand beyond its previous focus on adults and work with children and youth as well.
The idea is to work with the family as a whole.
Programs at the center include opportunities for children to receive educational support, including help from volunteer reading buddies. Adults and families can receive coaching and mentoring aimed at helping them build stability and move forward.
Volunteers also help maintain and improve the center through painting, cleanup projects and other work.
Some volunteers make a longer commitment by serving as mentors or working with children in educational programs.
The center also serves as a base for Elevate's broader work with families, including efforts to connect stable housing with coaching, training and mentorship.
“We just see the value in people,” Gosselin said.
Housing is another important part of that approach.
Elevate offers reduced-rate housing intended to give participating families greater stability while they work toward longer-term goals.
That effort is now growing.
The organization recently broke ground on Elevate Heights, a development next to the Elevate Center that will include 21 apartments.
Gosselin said some of the families served by the organization are working to reunite with children who have been in foster care. Stable housing can be an important part of that process.
Once completed, Elevate Heights will provide room for 21 additional families.
Gosselin's path to the work began years before he arrived in the Ozarks.
Born in California, he later raised his family in Colorado Springs, Colorado. About 17 years ago, he volunteered for a short cleanup project at a school in a low-income neighborhood.
It was only a few hours of work, but the experience stuck with him.
He began recruiting other volunteers, and that eventually grew into a nonprofit focused on helping lower-income families.
His work later caught the attention of Springfield-based Convoy of Hope.
Gosselin began traveling to Springfield in 2012 and joined Convoy of Hope's staff in 2013, helping with events around the country while looking for ways to create an impact that continued after those events ended.
That same idea became central to Elevate Lives, which has continued growing since 2017.
Gosselin said providing immediate help remains important, but he believes many people also need someone willing to stay beside them as they work toward something better.
“They really want to change their life,” Gosselin said. “I just want to walk alongside of those individuals and help them experience that better life that they're longing for.”
Community members can be part of that work in several ways.
Some opportunities are short-term, including painting and cleanup days. Others involve a longer commitment, such as mentoring or becoming a reading buddy.
People interested in volunteering can learn more through the Elevate Center or Elevate Lives websites.
For Gosselin, whether it's housing, mentoring, or helping a child with reading, the pieces all point toward the same goal.
Give families some stability, walk alongside them, and help them take the next step.
Elevate walks alongside families through stable housing, practical training, coaching, and mentorship, helping them move from surviving to thriving.
From surviving to thriving.
