Rose Kolawole

In 1999, as it worked on how to address the looming housing crisis, SWAP created the Neighborhood Mentoring Program - a unique initiative designed to work with local contractors. New to the area, Rose Kolawole was drawn to work in the inner city - and managing the program was a great fit.  

“The purpose of this program was to include more neighborhood contractors and subcontractors in the work of building more homes by providing classes to help them improve their business skills and be able to bid work for SWAP,” Rose says. “This program was very successful, and SWAP was able to hire some of the program graduates to work on building SWAP homes through mentoring”.

Rose is now SWAP’s Senior Construction Development Associate and says the organization is instrumental in the transformation of  South Providence, “You can see the difference in housing and revitalizing this neighborhood. The mission of SWAP says it all -to provide affordable housing opportunities for people of low and moderate income, revitalizing urban neighborhoods and building new communities.”

But, Rose notes, there is still much to be done, “We need to continue to work together to push the legislatures to support approving more funding to develop more much-needed affordable housing. I’ve been with SWAP for 26 years, and I can say I have been very fortunate to work in this great organization, with a great team and a great mission.”