VMH staff hard at work on their MIRA project

The mission of the Virginia Mountain Housing, Inc. is to assist low and moderate income individuals and families with their housing needs. VMH seeks to accomplish this by working with partners in the public and private sectors to create housing and economic opportunities in local communities.

VMH, like most non-profits, focused their efforts almost exclusively on their mission, often at the expense of their own infrastructure. Through the MIRA grant, VMH discovered that strengthening their own infrastructure enabled them to better serve their community.

VMH used their MIRA funds to enhance the technical capacity of the organization. This included:

• Development of a corporate database to quantify who VMH serves
• Upgraded telecommunications (telephone, voice mail, e-mail)
• Establishing relationships with other organizations to enhance communications
• Developing a web page
• Training staff, board members and participants in the use of this technology.

Part of a VMH concept map

The outcomes of the MIRA project were all positive, and in some cases, unexpected. For example, in discussing how to portray VMH on the web site, they realized that their mission statement had not been revised in ten years. This launched a new discussion, which, while delaying the development of the web site, created an updated mission statement that reflected the changes of the organization in recent years.

In addition, many new and renewed relationships were made with the three other MIRA grantees. For example, VMH was instrumental in setting up the Neighborhood Networks Community Learning Center in Pulaski, Virginia.