What we do:
Next Chapter: Home & Leadership Development is a two-program approach to lifting up BIPOC and underrepresented community members to elevate their opportunity to thrive in the next chapter of their lives.
Next Chapter: Home provides home goods and furnishing for newly housed persons free of charge. A shopping-type experience is provided to individuals exiting homelessness who are working with a local nonprofit, have secured housing, and are working with appropriate resources to continue building a healthy and sustainable future. This individual may “shop” for items such as furniture, kitchenware, home decor, plants, linens, bathroom essentials, pet supplies, sporting equipment, and many other items, in the Next Chapter showroom.
Next Chapter: Leadership Development provides a six-month board development and leadership course for BIPOC persons, those who have experienced homelessness, and under-represented community members at no charge. Coursework includes an in-depth study of organizational practices, financial oversight, human resource best practices, and nonprofit board strategy while providing students the hands-on experience of assisting to operate a non-profit (Next Chapter: Home). Upon course completion, Next Chapter: Leadership students will be prepared to serve on other non-profit boards and have the leadership training to enhance the next chapter of their career.
Who we are:
Julie and Lerria met as colleagues over 25 years ago when they worked together for Cavanaugh’s Hotels and G&B Select-A-Seat. After two decades of working together, they went in different directions, but remained friends. Over the past several years, they met regularly for lunch and often lamented the challenges they were being exposed to through their new careers (Lerria with the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund and Julie with learning and DEI work at Expedia). While Lerria was being exposed to the challenges of those experiencing homelessness and the overwhelming obstacles for the newly housed, Julie was focusing on global inclusion and diversity programs including Allyship, Microaggressions, Bias, Cultural Communications, Disability Inclusion, and Inclusive Hiring Practices.
For the past two years, their regular lunches always included talk about the gaps in home goods and furnishing for the newly housed and how difficult that made it for people to establish a healthy, sustainable lifestyle as well as conversations about the lack of leadership roles for BIPOC, those with lived experience and marginalized community members. One day Julie said, “Let’s do it. Let’s open a nonprofit and fill these two gaps the community needs”.
And now, here we are. Thank you for supporting our journey!
Dr. Julie Silbar, Co-Founder
Julie Silbar has lived in the Pacific NW for most of her life and is a proud graduate of EWU and Gonzaga University, having earned her PhD in Leadership Studies from GU in 2021. Julie spent a good portion of her professional life with Cavanaughs/WestCoast Hotels before moving on to more global companies, including American Express and Expedia Group, Inc. She specializes in inclusion, diversity, and equality initiatives, as well as cultural communication and organizational effectiveness. In addition, Julie is an adjunct professor at Gonzaga University teaching in both the School of Leadership Studies, business school, and Center for Lifelong Learning.
Lerria Schuh, Co-Founder
Lerria Schuh has called the Inland Northwest home for over 30 years. A graduate of Gonzaga University, Lerria spent over two decades with WestCoast Entertainment presenting the Best of Broadway series in Spokane before opening her own marketing/public relations company. While Lerria loved the entertainment industry, she took a leap of faith in 2019 and jumped into the nonprofit world in hopes to make a difference in her community.
Lerria is the current Executive Director for the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund. Through grants and activism, the Progressive Fund helps ensure vulnerable residents in the Inland Northwest and North Idaho have access to tools and resources to thrive.
“Next Chapter: Home provides home goods and furnishings to lighten the overwhelming obstacles of making a house a home for someone starting a new chapter in their life.”