Turning Negatives into Positives

Like many people, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic turned local business owner Lynn Harrell-Johnson’s life and livelihood upside down.

After working for the same company for 35 years, she was abruptly laid off due to staff reductions in the wake of the pandemic. She also owned commercial property that housed a hair salon, and that had to be closed in May 2020 to prevent the spread of the virus.

“I lost my job, I had to close my hair salon, I had to rethink things,” Johnson said.

Fortunately, Johnson would not let this deter her and turned negative into a positive for both her and the community.

With a love of her community and a passion for helping others, she decided that she wanted to create a nonprofit organization. The pandemic brought an existing issue to the forefront, the need for people to have access to technology equipment and help navigating the digital landscape and applications.

With that, the Community Tech House was born in the space that once occupied her hair salon.

“People needed assistance using their computers, applying for unemployment benefits,” she said. “So, I started just doing that.”

That soon evolved into setting up computers and printers and providing a safe space to work on things, especially since libraries were closed. When vaccines started to be distributed, Johnson realized this created another hardship that people would need help with.