Compassion and second chances: A Cedar Rapids nonprofit CEO’s journey to recovery and success

CEDAR RAPIDS — Mike Barnhart believes in giving people second chances because he knows firsthand how transformative second chances can be.

They can turn lives around. They can put people on the path to redeem themselves. People can change. They can grow. They can become the versions of themselves they have long yearned to become.

“Everyone should be able to reach their potential,” Barnhart, 64, said.

The outgoing chief executive officer of Horizons Family Services had come to Cedar Rapids in the throes of severe drug addiction to pursue sobriety in earnest.

“I've been homeless and slept under bridges,” Barnhart said. “Here I am now in a nice, comfortable life. It's not perfect, but it's comfortable. I don't have to worry about what to eat or where to sleep, or am I going to have gas in my car, and things like that. And I I see people, and I just know that things can be better for everybody.”

Barnhart announced last month plans to retire at the end of November after spending the past three decades building a career serving others in Eastern Iowa. He plans remain with Horizons as a consultant on its proposed Our Place older adult gathering space, while the search is underway for a new CEO.

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Horizons offers a variety of services across the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City metro area — including transportation, financial wellness and Meals on Wheels.

Throughout his late-teens, 20s and early 30s, Barnhart struggled with addiction. He moved to Iowa in 1992 at the age of 32 to live with his father “and get my life together.” He was on parole and was sent to substance abuse treatment center at the University of Iowa, where he completed a 28-day treatment program.

“When you're addicted to drugs, that's the whole focus of your life is just, you know, getting high, finding the drugs,” Barnhart said. “That's the whole focus. You know, you don't think about (life’s simple joys) like playing sports, or eating a good dinner, or stopping to smell the flowers, a nice view, a walk in the woods. You know, none of that, none of that stuff … means anything, because all your life is focused on getting and using of drugs.”

And another thing he realized about becoming addicted to drugs: “The whole trick is not to do the first one.”

After treatment, he decided to go back to college. He started taking classes at Kirkwood Community College, where he explored career possibilities within the helping professions. He considered working as a substance abuse counselor, but he wasn’t sure if one-on-one work was the right path.

He transferred to Mount Mercy University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in social work and began working at the Metro Area Housing Partnership. He worked with students at Metro High School to take reusable materials out of houses that were to be torn down to be resold.

Barnhart went on to work at Goodwill of the Heartland, where he worked in job development for people with disabilities. He joined Neighborhood Transportation Service in June 2000, where he focused on professionalizing the organization and increasing its ridership, which doubled before merging with Horizons in 2015.

He became chief operating officer for the combined organization and later the CEO in 2017.

NTS Manager Brandon Schulte recalled Barnhart driving 30 to 40 minutes early on a Sunday morning from his house outside Cedar Rapids to transport residents of Geneva Tower, an apartment building in downtown Cedar Rapids that houses seniors and adults with disabilities, who were displaced by a fire.

Residents were evacuated from the 12-story apartment building after a fire was reported shortly after midnight Feb. 20, 2022, on the ninth floor.

“He was transporting people on the bus, getting them up on the wheelchair ramps and everything. It was outside of his time, but he was committed to the community,” Schulte said.

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He also recalled times where Barnhart went out and picked up riders due to a shortage of drivers during the pandemic. Fellow NTS Manager Tabitha Downing recalled Barnhart providing sandbags for her home during the 2016 flooding.

“He is one of the most compassionate and caring people I've ever worked with,” Jim Miller, director of development at Horizons, said of Barnhart. “We truly are helping people with the most basic human needs — feeding them and transporting them and helping them to figure out how to buy a house. … And talk about giving people a second chance. We all deserve a place to live. We deserve a job and food and life's basic needs.”

Impact of COVID-19 and derecho

For the past three decades, Barnhart said he’s been amazed and uplifted by the community's resilience and resourcefulness in responding to disasters, with neighbors and nonprofit organizations working together to help those in need.

He recalled his staff of eight moved to the Harambee House in Wellington Heights after being flooded out of the downtown Ground Transportation Center in 2008 to take clients' reservations, and then schedule and dispatch NTS' fleet of vans and buses to fulfill them.

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“I think the flood was a Wednesday. I think we're back running again on Saturday,” Barnhart said. “And you know, the only road open across the river was the (Interstate) 380 bridge, and the people still had to work. There's people that still worked even though the flood happened. … You know, people depend on us to get them to work, and we have to do that.”

He said he’s grateful to have worked with a team of dedicated staff and volunteers with a passion to serve clients and the community despite hardships and uncertainty. “I haven’t done anything. It’s the people who work here who have,” Barnhart said.

He highlighted NTS’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including taking on extra hours and running 24/7, emphasizing that transportation should not be a barrier to making a living. NTS essentially became the city bus system for six months during the COVID-19 shutdown, transporting essential workers.

When the pandemic started, Horizons also had to consider what shifts they could make to Meals on Wheels to keep everyone as safe as possible while still providing much-needed meals. They adapted by switching to frozen meals once a week instead of daily delivery.

Just a few months later in 2020, the derecho hit and thousands of Cedar Rapids homes found themselves without power. Meals on Wheels again stepped in, delivering peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, canned goods and other non-perishable foods two days later, while finding workarounds to power outages and lack of access to refrigeration.

Today, the program has evolved to focus on improving the lives and health care outcomes of older adults by leveraging technology and volunteer relationships to reduce loneliness and isolation.

“We have an app that we use for delivery now, so there could be like, say, five questions. Did they sit up today? Did they take their medicine? Is there any trip hazards, things like that?” Barnhart said. “So we use the app to be able to transfer that information. So that's our goal with this program is to really take the next step and be more than a meal.”

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Barnhart said the experiences taught him the importance of community collaboration and highlighted the strong volunteer spirit and willingness to help others in Cedar Rapids, and the positive impact of small acts of kindness.

Future challenges and community support

Barnhart expressed concerns about the potential impact of federal funding cuts on nonprofit services and the growing needs of an aging population.

The federal debt is causing a paradigm shift for nonprofits to focus less on federal programs and build more local support, he said. Nonprofits now are turning more to local governments and private contributors to build a more robust donor base. This shift already is evident in the county's role in funding nonprofits, which has decreased due to new property tax laws, Barnhart said.

At the same time, Horizons is seeing growing demand for services from older Iowans. Iowa's population of people aged 65 and older is expected to grow in the coming years. In 2050, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services estimates just shy of 20 percent of Iowa's population will be age 65 or older, making community-based programs like Meals on Wheel that can help older adults stay in their homes and help the health care system more critical then ever.

“I just have a core belief that everybody should be able to reach their potential, whatever that is,” Barnhart said. “And I feel, you know, I look at myself that I'm not special or anything. And I was able to turn my life around, and I've had a wonderful life. And everybody should have that.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com