Habitat For Humanity

 For more than two decades, Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity has been building homes and fulfilling dreams. With the help of thousands of caring volunteers who have given their time and money, their sweat and their heart, Habitat has opened doors, created new opportunities and helped hundreds of Dallas families make their dreams a reality.

Just as a family has dreams for their loved ones, we have a dream for the future for the City of Dallas and all those people who make our city what it is—and that dream is not to simply build one home at a time, but to build out complete neighborhoods and to nurture communities where success is only limited by our ability to dream and imagine.

Habitat for Humanity is great. They are able to build a dream home for a deserving family in just eight weeks.So what was my day like? Well, after a long drive very early on a Saturday morning thinking " What in the world am I doing?" I arrived at the home site and community. The first thing I thought was " How beautiful all of the homes were". I was greeted by the Habitat team with warm friendly faces. They all expressed their thanks for my time.Then we all got to meet the new homeowner. I learned that as a homeowner you have to put in over 400 work hours on your home and other homes in the community.I love that you help your neighbors build their dream. I also learned that when visiting an older Habitat community the homes are well maintained and the community stays beautiful. I think it's because they all put so much into each others homes. I love that! They then asked about our talents. That would make you laugh, if you knew how little my home building talent was. I held my hand up and said I would help put up the siding.  Me on a ladder and working a power tool, this can not be a good thing but I overcame my fears and was taught how to use a concrete saw. I have provided a picture for proof. People this is no laughing matter, I could have put an eye out.I held my breath and started cutting. You know what? It was fun and really easy. Going up the ladder with the siding was not so easy but I DID IT!!

The crew all had important jobs and followed behind with the caulking and paint.
By the end of the day the house had siding. I was so proud of myself. I worked with two great guys one of them a computer engineer. He will be a good person to know. I was given a "Computer for Dummies" book by my 11 year old niece for Christmas. I"m sure this is a good contact for me. LOL. Seeing the new home owner work on the home made me think about how much pride we have in things we work hard for.I was so happy to help.Before I knew it, my time was done and because I'm Italian, Hugs For Everyone! I smiled all the way home.

I thank Habitat for Humanity for making this experience for me possible.

So here are the things I considered

Did I make good contacts? 

Well I can now throw away my " Computers for Dummies" book so YES!!!!

Did I overcome my fears and try something new ?

I did go up the ladder and I worked power tools without putting an eye out so YES!!!

Can I help get the word out about Habitat for Humanity?

I hope my experience makes you want to try a day with them 
building a dream for a deserving family.

Did I do something I can be proud of ? Two words

Power-tools and Ladder YES!!!!

At the end of the day how did I feel?

I'm still smiling, knowing a family will be in their home for the holidays. 

I hope you're excited about Habitat for Humanity. Here's all the information to help out.

This is the information I received from Habitat.

Let me explain more about construction volunteering. There are four basic types of volunteers on the build site, of which the last two are focused on individual volunteering:

• Partner family members/friends (the people buying the home)
• Sponsor volunteer (coming out as part of a group)
• Occasional volunteer
• Core volunteer

Occasional Volunteer

An Occasional volunteer is someone who wants to work but only as his/her schedule allows. Here’s how that works: Contact me during the week when you’d like to come out. We’ll let you know if there is a spot for you, and if so, we’ll send further instructions. We will not know for sure until the Thursday prior to each Saturday. So while you can ask to sign up and we’ll put you on the list to come out if we have enough room, we can’t tell you for sure until a couple days in advance. We try extremely hard not to schedule so many volunteers you wonder why you got up on a Saturday morning.

Core Volunteer

Core volunteers (CV) are expected to be more knowledgeable about construction techniques and safety requirements. This knowledge is gained over time by working regularly with other experienced CVs. They will generally be asked to assist the Sponsor volunteers and new volunteers who are just getting started with Habitat. CVs can work with any of the dedicated crews on Saturday or weekdays. During our busy months, we also engage CVs Tuesdays through Saturdays helping pre-build walls in the shop. A position description is attached that will help you decide if the role of a CV is right for you. The program is a great way to develop leadership skills since our CVs ultimately help our staff supervisors work with inexperienced volunteers.

To get started as a CV:

1. Reply to this e-mail and let me know you’d like to become a Core Volunteer. You will need to choose 2 to 4 of the following Saturday dates to volunteer: Aug. 7, 14, 21, and 28, Sept. 11, 18, and 25. You know your schedule better than we do, so we are relying on you to communicate with us. Space available depends on the number of projects (and that depends on funding). We’ll communicate details during the week of the Saturdays for which you volunteer. If you are available during the week and not on Saturdays, please let me know so we can schedule a time to meet in my office.
2. You need to sign in at the job site each morning on the blue sign in sheets. After you have completed the number of days you requested, you’ll be invited to attend a Core Volunteer Orientation at the Habitat offices, where you’ll find out more about Habitat International and how the Dallas affiliate operates. Please stay in communication with us if your schedule changes.
3. After completing the Orientation you can join any of the task-specific crews (Framing, Trusses, Roofing, Siding, Painting or a catch-all Swing or Whole House Crews) or the Wednesday/Thursday/Shop crews. You will still be expected to work at least one day per month to maintain CV status but will receive communication each week with the schedule and any announcements.

You might like to help as a site host on Saturdays. Site hosts help the Volunteer Services staff welcome and register volunteers on Saturday morning. Although the time commitment is not tremendous, the service of our site hosts is extremely valuable to us! Please let me know if you’d like to become a site host so I can connect you with the coordinator!

If you'd like to help in our administrative offices, located at 2800 N. Hampton Rd, they are open Monday-Friday from 8 to 5 (those of us in Volunteer Services are also here on Saturday afternoons), and volunteers help us keep up with filing and data entry, as well as other projects as different departments have them organized—phone calls, bulk mailings, thank you notes, etc. We're flexible in scheduling, so if you’d like to help behind the scenes, please let me know your availability. I do want to say up front that for the next few weeks, we have several volunteers already scheduled, so unless a department has an unexpected project, availability in the office might be quite limited.

We are also working to increase the number in our Photography Crew. If you’re interested in helping us capture our story in photos (or know someone who is), please let me know! We have regular orientations for new volunteer photographers.

Our site engineer is also recruiting a group of 10 or more volunteers who would be available on weekdays to help her with permitting, with the pace picking up more in August, closer to when we’ll have more homes under construction. The position involves picking up documents from our offices, then taking them to the City and waiting on a response. The total time is generally around 3 or 4 hours, and the mornings usually have a shorter wait time than the afternoons. If you’d be able to help her and are interested, please let me know so I can connect you with her.

During various times of the year, we also have a variety of special projects that require volunteer assistance. If you’ve indicated you’re interested in helping with any of the specific tasks listed in the volunteer registration area, I’ll stay in touch as these projects become available.

    

Build site age restrictions:

Under 14: not allowed on the build site until the dedication day

14 and 15: allowed to landscape; must have one adult per youth of this age; parent must sign release form

16 and 17: allowed to pick up a hammer and build but not operate power tools or get on the roof; must have one adult per five youth of this age; parent must sign release form

For more information go to Habitat.org to find one in your town.