Check Out Brooke Roberts’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Roberts. 

Hi Brooke, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
My story begins when what I thought I was supposed to do wasn’t what I was supposed to do at all. It was a devastating realization because what set my heart on fire would not become a reality for me. Though a painful and complicated journey, my pastor and trusted friends helped me walk forward in faith to discover my true mission. As it turns out, I was wrong about myself, and what I do now actually sets the world on fire. 

I most sincerely believe in the power of community and have been unconsciously building them most of my life. In my sincerest heart, I love people. I love how they are created; I love the nuances in the way they approach problems, I love culture and language and all the beauty that makes up a singular person or many. Introducing people and building bridges between them is both a gift and love of mine. 

The ITE Project is a community of people who encounter each other where they are as often as they can, united in a common, steadfast faith. It isn’t people from a specific parish or demographic or specific political leaning. It is a tremendous mix of people who come together at any given time to be what ITE is. Sometimes that might be a service project for the disadvantaged. Sometimes that might be a conversation around a fire about the things that really matter. Sometimes it might be a night to sing out loud or go to a baseball game. Sometimes it might a day tucked away praying and growing in one’s personal faith. Whatever it is, ITE is there when a person wants it to be. 

The name can throw anyone for a loop for sure! It can generally be pronounced /EE-tay/ or /IT-tay/. In a Catholic Mass, the closing is a statement to take what one receives in the Mass into the greater world to show the love of Jesus. One of the forms reads “Ite, missa est’ which means –Go forth! The Mass is ended.’ We believe that it is the doing and living of our faith which changes the world. In a way, you could call it “The Go-Forth Project.” 

The ITE Project gather together young adults who want to find a purpose for their lives. Some of in school. Some single, others married. Some have kids, some don’t want kids. It doesn’t really matter when what we do is serve others together. As such, these young adults go into the community and serve in a variety of ways. Service projects can be varied. We often run a clothing drive, gathering clothes to redistribute them to charities which give clothing away. We spend a winter’s morning in a local mall to pass out long-stemmed roses with an encouraging note to help people feel seen. Sometimes we are called to serve the homeless by making meals. Other times host baby showers for people who have no family to support them. Basically, we go wherever we are called and minister to those who ask. 

The gift has been that while serving out in the communities, we have become a community ourselves. People meet and become friends. People have fallen in love and had babies together. People have discerned into religious life and out again. Regardless, we are always there for the person in the times they seek companionship. 

It is the building of this community across the years that is the most life-giving aspect of the nonprofit. Seeing people find commonality and strength in community is the purpose I never knew I had when I was short-sighted years ago. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Perhaps the best roads are the ones that meander, dip and pull. While it is difficult to appreciate the sensation of piping hot coffee on your lap while you plow through a pothole, the coffee itself becomes the lesson you learn. You learn to appreciate its branding on your leg farther down the road. 

There have been numerous struggle in building The ITE Project. I think the hardest for me has been my own belief in my abilities and believing that I am worthy to build something that impacts people as deeply as it does. I still struggle against this constantly, especially when met with opposition. 

The ITE Project hosts its events for free for young adults. I staunchly believe this is necessary. 

I never want the opportunity to grow with friends or in faith to be cost-prohibitive. Young adult life is crushingly expensive. As such, funding is a challenge that I face as the Mission Executive. It is extremely awkward to approach people and ask for their money even if their money will be spent in the best of ways. My belief that how we improve our local community and how we grow community in young adults is the force that keeps me asking. 

Another challenge has been being what is called ‘a prophet in his own land.’ It’s a biblical term which means that when people ‘know’ who you are, they don’t take seriously what you do. As such, some people in my life do not understand the breadth and height and depth of what it is that I build and my dreams for its future. Learning to be okay with that is another challenge altogether. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My professional life is my home. It is my husband, my children, their friends and their families, the people from my church, and the people from everywhere else on my earthly journey. My calling is to love the person next to me as best I can every single day. It is tears over schoolwork, giggles on swings, and late-night chats with my teens in my kitchen. It’s not having enough time, not knowing what to do, and making it up as I go along most of the time. It’s ministering to the children of God and praying that what I give makes a difference in their lives. 

I am most proud of my husband and my nine earthly children. At this point in my life, I have children ages 17 years to not even one-year-old and every developmental stage under my roof. It isn’t easy; in fact, sometimes it feels absolutely impossible. But we trudge on together and make our memories clinging together against the storms and the sunshine. 

Outside of that, I run The ITE Project to build communities with lasting benefits. 😉 

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Risk-taking means vulnerability and vulnerability is often avoided. To be seen for who we truly are and be potentially rejected for the way we are created is too much for most folks, I think. While we delight in the ‘what-ifs’ that lead us to places of happiness and success, we more often fear failure more. 

In my own story, I am still trying to learn that when I take a risk and its outcome doesn’t go the way I want, it isn’t a failure. Worse yet, is when I risk something and decide not to try again. It feels embarrassing to me and what I thought would work didn’t and that the whole big world is pointing at me and saying — yup, she did that and that was a stupid thing to try. 

I struggling to become more comfortable with risk and to experiment. I have seen times when I risked and it went well and that encourages me along the way when I struggle against the times it didn’t go well. 

I want to risk more. I am just still learning how. 

Contact Info:

• Email: info@TheITEProject.com
• Website: www.TheITEProject.com
• Instagram: @TheITEProject
• Facebook: @TheITEProject
• Youtube: The ITE Project

Image Credits
Joan Crookston
Jemily Photography