Bryan House on NBC News

Helping Refugees from Around the Globe

The NBC news report below features Iraqi refugee Imaad Hasan and his family.  Rick Guzman, co-founder of Bryan House, is interviewed on how these programs work to break cycles of poverty for refugee families through home ownership and education.  At the time, the Hasan’s were one of the families staying at Bryan House saving for a home.  Since then they have indeed bought a beautiful home in Aurora, IL, rehabbed it with the help of many volunteers, and moved in.  One of Bryan House’s most notable “graduates,” Imaad and his family have been featured on some of World Relief’s major videos, and several articles have been written about this inspirational, hard-working family, including “With Liberty and Justice for All.”  Bryan House families have come from across the globe: Congo, Martinique, Bhutan, Iraq, Rwanda, Kenya, Togo….

When Bryan House expanded its programs to all the working poor it could reach, it became part of a larger organization, Emmanuel House, now with multiple sites.  Then in 2018 Emmanuel House merged with its long-time partner, The Joseph Corporation, to become The Neighbor Project.  Bryan house served 5 families, Emmanuel House 25, and now The Neighbor Project serves over 100, with 200 clearly in sight.  Rick and Desiree Guzman founded both Bryan House and Emmanuel House as living memorials to Bryan Emmanuel Guzman.  Learn more about Emmanuel House, how it works, and its history HERE on this site, or go directly to the Emmanuel House website to donate, volunteer, and invest.  Since its home ownership program remains the cornerstone of The Neighbor Project, this website remains active along with The Neighbor Project website.

Though the TV report below doesn’t get it quite right—families do not live at Bryan House or any of the Emmanuel House sites rent free—we’ve used it as one way to advertise the annual Emmanuel House Dinner and Silent Auction, one of the organization’s major fundraisers.  Please join us every year.  More info will be HERE and elsewhere on this site, and the Emmanuel House and The Neighbor Project websites.

The auction has also changed quite a bit.  In the original version of this post we asked for donations, or leads on donations, and said, “Come and bid on hundreds of items at great prices—from everyday items you’d be buying anyway, to sports memorabilia, to tickets, to sailing trips…Something for everyone starting as little as $4.  Christmas shopping with a cause!”  It’s now become a fancier thing, a Dinner & Auction with fewer “everyday” items.  Sports memorabilia and tickets still play big for us, though, as well as an item that’s always been one of its biggest: a month at the Guzman’s condo in Sedona, AZ.

*** Go  to the Emmanuel House/Bryan House main page.

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