About us
The story of Project Home begins with another organization active in our community, Keene Immigrant and Refugee Partnership or KIRP, and the good work they have done over the last two years.
Keene is a small college town (population 23,000) set amid rural communities in southwestern New Hampshire: not unlike countless other towns and small cities across the U.S. In the immediate wake of the 2016 Muslim immigration ban imposed by presidential executive order, two small groups independently met in the café section of the local co-op grocery store to share their outrage and to forge an appropriate and effective response. Each group quickly became aware of the presence of the other, and so they joined forces and founded Keene Immigrant and Refugee Partnership. KIRP is now an established force for hope and welcome to immigrants in the city of Keene. A group of 15 to 20 meet regularly, working directly to meet the needs of immigrants in the area, and advocating with city, state and national representatives to resist anti-immigrant sentiments and to work for a humane and welcoming immigration policy.
In the late summer of 2019, we were getting constant reports of traumatized children deprived of parental care and locked in cages at our borders. Horrified by what was happening, a friend called another friend to say, “We have to do something!” A small group gathered, including several members of KIRP. They coalesced around the understanding that when asylum seekers come to our country, families should not be separated, they should not be put in jail, and they should be given a fair shot at making their asylum-seeking case. And clearly if they didn’t belong in jail, then they belonged in our communities.
Uncertain how to make that happen and whether there would be support in our community for this approach, group members joined a vigil in the town square in support of refugees. They asked the community to get involved, to be part of designing and implementing a model that would bring five asylum-seeking families or individuals to our community, where they would live with host families throughout their legal process. Over fifty people signed up to join this effort, and Project Home was born. The numbers have grown since then!
Project Home, nurtured and led by a dedicated core team, is now a non-profit corporation whose mission is to provide our asylum-seeking guests with legal support, to meet their basic needs such as housing and food, and to provide a versatile support team to help them connect with the community and with any necessary services such as mental health, medical care, education, and job training.
Meet The Core Team
The core team is the governing body of Project Home.
Penny Ryder Vaine
Penny has a long career of connecting families to the resources they need to thrive. She has worked with programs for early childhood, maternal child health and the elderly. Now a resident of Winchester NH, Penny grew up overseas, and she understands the importance of feeling welcomed into a new and foreign community.
Katie Schwerin
Katie is co-founder of the WS Badger Co. In addition to Katie's leadership at Badger, she has spearheaded the development of the company’s child friendly policies, babies at work program, and the childcare center, as well as prioritizing the certified B Corporation status. Katie has a Master's in Education and was a lead teacher at the Monadnock Waldorf School for 12 years, with an additional 5 years teaching economics and entrepreneurship to seniors at the High School. Katie recently completed her MFA degree at Goddard College.
Dr. Judy Reed
Judy began her career as a classroom teacher. She was Lower School Director at Moorestown Friends School in southern NJ, and then Head of Horizon’s Edge School in Canterbury, NH. For over 20 years she was a professor of teacher education in the University System of NH, specializing in social justice education. She co-founded Spark Teacher Education Institute in Brattleboro VT. She is now Professor Emerita in the Education Department at Keene State College.
Dr. Mohammad Saleh
Mohammad is a scientist/engineer by profession and an engaged citizen in Keene, NH. Mohammad is the vice-chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Keene city and an active member of the Keene Immigration and Refugee Partnership (KIRP). He believes that humanity is at a crossroad, and to meet the challenges of the increasingly global civilization we should extend our hands toward people who are different from us.
David Blair
David has lived in Harrisville since 1975 and worked in the public schools for the Harris Center and as the ConVal District ESL director for 16 years. David co-founded the Mariposa Museum and World Culture Center, where he has served as education director, executive director and board member to foster peace, global awareness and understanding across cultural boundaries.
Steve Schuch
Steve, or Pablo (as his Spanish-speaking friends know him), studied music and biology at Oberlin College. Following two years with Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, he has used music to build connections between people. Credits include a Grammy nomination, PBS soundtracks, and five national book awards for his musical story, A Symphony of Whales. Steve’s latest project, America the Dream, combines lines from “America the Beautiful” with Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream for all people.
Barbara Chase
Barb has lived in the Keene area for fifty years, having moved here from Fairbanks Alaska, where Bill, her husband was stationed with the U. S Army. Barb began here working life as a research biologist for Merck in Philadelphia. Upon returning to the lower forty-eight from Alaska, , she began to study creative dance, and taught privately and in the public schools. In 1995 she received her MEd from KSC. Since retirement she and Bill have traveled with service teams to Haiti, Nepal, Honduras, Tanzania, and several locations within the United States. For six years Barb worked as an EMT for the Westmoreland Volunteer Fire Department. She volunteered as an advocate for MCVP for nine years. Now Barb volunteers as a CASA, court appointed special advocate for children.
Dr. Bill Chase
Bill began a practice in general surgery in Keene with the Keene Clinic 50 years ago. He received his medical education and surgical training at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and then spent a tour with the US Army in Alaska before coming to Keene. He is a graduate of
Colby College and has a masters in Organization Management from Antioch University. Since retirement in 2000, he was a state legislator, the Westmoreland Emergency Management Director, and a Surveyor of hospital cancer programs across the country for the Commission on Cancer. He has also volunteered in various places around the world including Honduras, Ecuador, Tanzania, Haiti, St Lucia, Nepal, West Virginia, and Montana, sometimes in a medical
capacity and sometimes not.
Tom Buttrick
Tom has spent the majority of his working career in the computer industry, with the last 45 years in the industry as an independent software/data consultant. After “retiring”, Tom joined an ISP (Internet Service Provider) startup, to provide internet services to the unserved/underserved Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. At various points, Tom has served as treasurer for a church, town, and various non-profits. He has also been on support teams for both Project Home and NST before joining the Project Home core team.
Jennifer Kiernan
Jennifer moved to Keene, New Hampshire, with her husband, Gerard, and their two children in 2003. She has worked in education in a variety of capacities since 1989 and currently works as a special education teacher at Wells Memorial School in Harrisville. Hosting a guest through Project Home was a wonderful and transformative experience for Jennifer and her family, and she is excited to serve on the Project Home core team.
Gerard Kiernan
Gerard works as a physician in Keene. He grew up in the NYC metropolitan area, as a first generation American, and attended college in New England before graduate school and work took him to other parts of the country. Gerard met his wife Jennifer when they both worked for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, an environmental organization. They’ve hosted a Project Home guest and have supported efforts to extend decency towards those seeking safety and a future in the USA.
Grace Johnson
Grace Johnson is grateful to serve as the executive coordinator of Project Home. New Hampshire educated, with a BA in theatre and psychology from Dartmouth College and an MA in dance/movement therapy and mental health counseling from Antioch University NE, she works to foster community, possibility, and meaning in times of crisis and transition. Prior to joining Project Home, she worked with Catholic Charities as part of their asylum seeker response in Manhattan and coordinated a refugee shelter for Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas. She has worked in addiction recovery with adults at Phoenix House Keene and collaborated on a bi-ethnic youth theatre project in postwar Bosnia. Like so many of us, she is the grandchild and great-grandchild of immigrants.
In Memorium: Susan Hay
Susan was a founding member of several social justice efforts, culminating in the Keene Immigrant and Refugee Partnership, Project Home, and the Monadnock Immigrant Solidarity Collaborative. As a member of the leadership in Project Home, she was instrumental in creating this opportunity for her community to open its arms to asylum seekers and to use the learnings from this work to help other communities do the same. Her background was in counseling and human resources, and she offered individual career coaching to college students and new graduates. In the last years of her life, she retired in order to devote herself more fully to Project Home and our asylum-seeking guests. Susan lived in Keene, NH at the time of her death in 2025. She is survived by her husband Bill and her son Reilly.