DESIGNING A HOME: University of Kansas BSW alum turned interior designer’s passion for foster care youths inspires nonprofit
Mel McDaniel will be the first to tell you her career has zigged and zagged. A University of Kansas (KU) Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) turned successful interior designer, Mel spent much of her professional career searching for answers about her impact on consumption, excess, and affluence while helping clients renovate and design their homes. She struggled to find a way that her work could positively impact a society she saw during her time in the KU Social Welfare program. That is, until 2019, when she decided to launch Marvin’s Home, a nonprofit organization that furnishes homes for youths who have aged out of the foster care system.
KU, the Backbone of Mel’s Desire to Help
Growing up in an institutional religious community in Canada, Mel’s upbringing was not a traditional one: she moved around a lot and had limited social interaction with the outside world. As sheltered as Mel’s upbringing was, travel opened her eyes and a year in Kenya significantly impacted her desire to make a difference.
Mel’s first taste of the liberal arts came from her aunt, a then KU Japanese professor, who wrote to invite Mel to join her in Lawrence. At the time, Mel never thought she would attend college, let alone in Kansas. But, looking for a change and wanting to learn more about Africa through KU’s then-named African Studies program, Mel took a chance, packed her bags, and without realizing it, changed her life forever.
Coming to KU was quite a transition for Mel. “My entire high school graduating class was smaller than one class at KU.” Mel remembers, “I walked around campus for at least the first month with that paper map.”
What impacted Mel’s time at KU the most was the KU Alternative Breaks program. The program, which brings KU students to volunteer at various agencies around the country, showed Mel the harsh realities many people in the United States face daily. She quickly became the leader of Alternative Breaks and enrolled in the School of Social Welfare to earn her BSW degree.
Reflecting on her time in the BSW program, “in my social welfare classes, I learned so much about the daily struggle many people in this country face. I still think about an exercise where we tried to live on a minimum wage budget, which was impossible. And we know that hasn’t changed.”
Interior Designing and Marvin’s Home
Mel worked in social welfare before moving to Philadelphia. There she struggled to find her next chapter but then, almost like a movie moment, Mel registered for an interior design program after receiving a flyer in the mail. Telling herself she would do design work for one year until she figured out her next steps, Mel discovered a natural affinity for design and soon became a popular residential designer in the greater-Philadelphia area.
But what had always stayed with Mel during her interior design career was her time in the KU Social Welfare program and, more specifically, her practicum experience at a foster care services site in Kansas. And for a time, while still interior designing, she reflects that she was “so surprised at myself for being in design that I got my Master of Education so I could teach GED classes.” After a couple of years teaching GED classes to adults who did not have the opportunity to go to high school, she moved on because while loving the work, it was hard to live on the pay. But her desire for service remained.
But what had always stayed with Mel during her interior design career was her time in the KU Social Welfare program and, more specifically, her practicum experience at a foster care services site in Kansas.
The sense of home as essential to one’s well-being has always connected Mel to the importance of interior design. Her foster care home visits during her practicum were anything but a sense of real home, “we take for granted having a home that works, with some basic furniture, rugs, light, art, personal touches. So often, there were none of these things. That has always stayed with me.” It was this juxtaposition between her current clients and her former ones that inspired Marvin’s Home.
For years, Mel’s design clients would give her furniture and decor that just needed to go, usually quickly. She kept some pieces but mostly, she ended up taking them to donation sites. For years she knew there was a better use for them. “There had to be a better way for unneeded furniture to find people who have nothing.”
Mel’s philosophy of “from where there is plenty — give where there is none” convinced her that all the stuff in our consumerist society — seen daily in her work — could be better utilized. And so, she decided to find a way to repurpose them.
Marvin’s Home is dedicated repurposing donated items to furnish the first home of youths who have aged out of the foster care system, a group that has resonated with her since her time at KU. Often, with a mattress on the floor but no bedding, a lack of art or memorabilia on the walls, and seldom a place to sit and eat, these homes “have the feel of a detention cell, that is how barren they are,” according to Mel. And with the current statistics about the difficulty former foster kids face in successfully launching adult lives on their own, having a space that feels like a true home can help these foster care youths start their adult lives in a meaningful way.
“I’ve come full circle: wanting to make a difference but not finding my way, and now my interior design job is what makes Marvin’s Home possible.” She adds, “to have this desire become a meaningful and concrete reality is thrilling.”
The installs themselves are truly like an episode from HGTV. Mel works with Valley Youth House, a local agency that puts her in touch with youth who have just moved into their own place. She works directly with the individual to decide on furniture, colors, needs and interests — the same things she does with her residential clients. Some are happy with anything, while others come to Mel with plenty of specific requests. “It is a lot of hard work but always so much fun,” Mel remarks. Mel and her supportive volunteers quickly transform the space while the young person is out. When they return, they open the door and walk into a home that is unrecognizable from the one they left just a few hours prior.
Marvin’s Home has recently expanded and added a showroom for pieces that cannot be used in installs due to size, style or weight. The addition of the showroom allows the furniture to be sold at a discount to the public, with all proceeds reinvested into Marvin’s Home. Her residential clients, too, have been incredibly supportive of Marvin’s Home, with many contributing more items, monetary donations, and even volunteering their time and services.
Mel is still struck by how creating a home impacts these young people, “one of them said they’d never been in a home with art before. She and her son loved the art we installed, so we framed art from donated books and added more.” Adding, “you never know what people haven’t had.”
With so many individuals that need a place that feels like home, Mel hopes to expand Marvin’s Home to support others in need of support. She’d love to one day help “immigrants, women who leave shelters, exonerated prisoners — people who have had real struggles but are now on their own and do not have a home; we want to give them a home.”
With many dreams for Marvin’s Home, Mel hopes this work will continue to grow. She’s thankful to have connected her interior design talents with her passion for social work. Frankly remarking, “the world can be a hard place. It’s a little better when we find ways to help each other.”
Learn more about Marvin’s Home and donate to support their work.
