Ellen Groh makes others feel at home.
She’s been the executive director of the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness for the past eight years, and she’s kicking off the holiday season with two landmark pieces to her life’s puzzle. She’s already announced her retirement, effective Dec. 2, from an emotionally challenging profession.
And Wednesday night, in the big ballroom at the Grappone Conference Center, Groh was due to receive the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce’s annual Citizen of the Year Award at the 103rd Annual Meeting.
“I am deeply honored and blown away,” Groh said by phone, before attending the evening dinner and award ceremony. “I think this award is really recognizing the amazing dedication and work of so many people, both within our organization and our incredible partners.”
The CCEH, a nonprofit, is a noble effort, a team effort, made up of staff, volunteers and corporate donors who mean so much to so many. But Groh is the undeniable face of compassion for the downtrodden, some of who sleep in wooded areas, blocked from public view.
That’s why Chamber voters selected Groh for its Citizen of the Year Award. She has a law degree and a Master’s. She once practiced law. A job in the courtroom paid substantially more than one on the streets of Concord.
“All the staff could command a higher salary in the private market,” Groh said. “Sure, with the degrees I have I could command a higher salary. This is all donations and grants.”
Looking back, Groh was unsure of her path in life. She grew up in Westchester, N.Y., and poked fun at college because she thought, “it was for rich people who wanted to live off their parents.”
She settled on college in upstate New York, an early part of Groh’s growth. She was 21 when her mother (cancer) and father (stroke), both journalists, died within a year of each other. They were older parents, 60.
“When I was 30 I missed the fact that they were gone,” Groh said, “because then I could have asked some intelligent questions. At the time I was 21 and I thought they had lived long lives.”
It’s hard to believe that at one time, Groh, a strong and affable leader, lacked focus. Or at least her path was cloudy. She was good at certain things. She worked in construction, saying she could “frame up a wall,” and “haul plywood up the stairs.”
She landscaped, taught school and waitressed. “A friend suggested law school,” Groh said. “I could help the community through law. Being a lawyer would give me that power.”
That power to make a difference, we know, lay elsewhere at the time. Groh had degrees in elementary education and law. She earned a Master’s in public health. She had a community-organizing background that was sorely needed here.
She did legal services and was part of the Housing Finance Authority in North Carolina. At the time, the topic of affordable housing for the homeless was moving into the firm’s radar.
Groh met a Hollis man and moved to the Granite State in 1999. They moved to Concord last year.
About 10 years ago, the CCEH was transitioning. The director’s job was available. Groh was hired to work 30 hours each week. That morphed into fulltime hours. In the past, the organization had had a director of the Resource Center and nothing else.
Groh was the first director responsible for the entire operation. That meant lots of hours and lots of pressure, and those who know Groh say her focus never wavered over the next eight years.
Rosanne Haggerty is the CEO of a national organization that seeks solutions for homelessness. In a Chamber release, she wrote of Groh, “Ellen stands among the most effective leaders fighting homelessness in the country.”
Groh implemented Concord’s Plan to End Homelessness, gathering hundreds of community members to join her. She moved the Resource Center to a bigger space, bought buildings to house vulnerable clients, collaborated with all agencies connected to the CCEH, and, of course, fundraised.
The Chamber took notice. Groh, who’s 60, said she was “shocked, stunned” when she heard the news.
She retires in three weeks. She and her husband, Lee Hill, plan to ride an Auto Train to Florida, then drive home, stopping to visit friends and relatives along the east coast.
Sometime in the future, Groh’s husband wants to live in Germany, perhaps for a few years.
Groh said she’ll go.
“Concord is my home,” Groh said, “so it would just be a temporary thing. I love Concord and I want to continue making things happen.”