Women volunteers representing “The Build Generation” will raise their hammers at Habitat for Humanity construction sites across the country in recognition of National Women Build Week, May 5- 13. National Women Build Week is an initiative of Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build program developed in partnership with Lowe’s.

This year’s theme, “The Build Generation,” reflects the event’s goal to recruit and train women volunteers, as well as welcome the next generation of Habitat Women Builders – young women, ages 18 to 24 – to support Habitat’s mission to create affordable housing.

In honor of Mother’s Day, Lowe’s Heroes and women volunteers will raise the first walls on the Mung/Niang family’s new home at Southeast 171^st and Division Street on Saturday, May 12.

“I can’t think of a better way to spend Mother’s Day weekend than working side-by-side with my mom and Habitat’s Women Build, giving back to the community just like she taught me to do,” said Katie Hughes, a long-time volunteer and member of Habitat’s Women Build Committee.

Lowe’s is providing Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East a $5,000 Lowe’s store gift card, as well as in-store volunteer training, in support of National Women Build Week.

“We are so grateful to Lowe’s, not only for their financial support, but also for the enthusiastic volunteers that give their time to Women Build,” said Katie “That’s a true sign of their dedication to Habitat’s mission.”

Build with Habitat and Lowe’s during National Women Build Week on May 5 – 13 by clicking here!

Jubilee Commons residents joined Habitat staff and a long-time volunteer, Carolyn Graf, to learn more about how to keep their homes in top condition. A familiar face to everyone at Jubilee Commons, Carolyn worked for nearly three years with the residents as they each completed their 500 hours of sweat equity before moving into their homes.

“It was extremely gratifying for me to see the homeowners at Jubilee Commons so interested and excited about maintaining the homes that we built,” said Carolyn. “I was also really impressed and happy to see the great sense of community they have developed with one another.”

The class focused on answering resident questions and teaching about repairs families can do around their home. Residents were able to pass on their own home care tips and talked about sharing tools to help decrease costs.

“One of our goals is to make sure families have the knowledge they need to be successful homeowners,” said Kevin Hoffman, Assistant Construction Supervisor at Habitat. “Continuing education and encouraging communication between neighbors is an important part of that.”

Habitat offers a variety of classes to homeowners before they purchase their home. These classes include HOA and tax workshops, disaster preparedness, financial literacy and gardening classes. The classes are designed to prepare every family to become successful homeowners and become rooted in their community. This is the first time that classes have been offered covering how to make home repairs to current Habitat homeowners after they’ve moved into their homes.

“We were really grateful for this class,” said Christina, a homeowner who also serves on the board of the Jubilee Commons Homeowner Association. “Our community can always learn more and we really appreciate everyone’s efforts to help us protect our homes.”

And on a Spring morning in March, Barbara Casey arrived at the Rivergate Commons dedication ceremony to share a story about her best friend, Armanda Pinto, who left a Planned Giving gift to Habitat.

“Social Justice was not just a word for Armanda, it was a call  to action,” said Barbara. “She always took the side of people working for rights and dignity. To her, all work was valuable and there is no greater work than to provide a home for your family.”

Armanda cherished her home more than anything, remodeling it all by herself. Her home was where she enjoyed her art and projects and it was where her best memories were made. When Armanda passed away she provided a gift to Habitat in her will as a meaningful way to create a memorial that would help other families also feel the joy of owning a safe, stable home.

Barbara will never forget the joy in the six families eyes as they were handed keys to their homes, thanks in part to the generosity of her best friend, Armanda.

“I will never forget Armanda and now there is a wonderful part of north Portland that will be surrounded by homes that she helped to build,” said Barbara. “She would be humble and yet she would be proud that Rivergate Commons is part of her legacy.”

If you would like to learn more about Planned Giving opportunities, please contact Erika Read at erika@habitatportlandmetro.org or call 503-287-9529 x16.

Carries’s work will be on display and open to the public starting Sunday, May 20, through the month of June at Westminster Presbyterian Church, a long-time partner of Habitat for Humanity. Her work is available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds graciously benefiting Habitat.

Paintings by Carrie Jossy-Christian
Opening May 20,  2012
Westminster Presbyterian Church – Cloisters Gallery
1624 Northeast Hancock Street
Portland, Oregon 97212

Women volunteers will raise their hammers at Habitat for Humanity construction sites across the country in recognition of National Women Build Week, May 5-13. The event is a nationwide initiative of Habitat’s Women Build program developed in partnership with Lowe’s.

Now in its fifth year, National Women Build Week challenges women to devote at least one day to creating simple, decent and affordable housing in their local communities. Nearly 31,000 women volunteers from all 50 states have participated in the previous four events.

This year’s theme, “The Build Generation,” reflects the event’s goal to recruit and train women volunteers, as well as welcome the next generation of Habitat Women Builders – young women, ages 18-24 – to help support Habitat’s mission to create affordable housing. Lowe’s and Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East are looking for women to volunteer at a Habitat construction site for at least one day during this nine-day event that culminates on Mother’s Day. Construction or home improvement experience is not necessary.

To date, women volunteers have helped construct more than 1,900 Habitat houses nationwide. Locally, Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East has built seven Women Build houses in the Portland and Gresham area and is starting their eighth home this spring.

National Women Build Week is held the week leading up to Mother’s Day because of its significance to Habitat homeowners and volunteers. Families with children make up a staggering number of those in need of adequate housing. More than 12 million children – one in six – live in poverty housing in the United States alone.

Lowe’s contributed more than $1.3 million to National Women Build Week, providing $5,000 Lowe’s gift cards to 275 Habitat affiliates. National Women Build Week is one of the major initiatives supported through Lowe’s five-year, $20 million pledge to Habitat. As the underwriter of the Women Build program since 2004, Lowe’s conducts “how-to” clinics at stores to teach women construction skills, enabling them to support Habitat projects across the country.

To volunteer or donate to this project, please call 503.287.9529 or click here to sign-up!

An AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) team arrived in Portland on March 19 to spend seven weeks with Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East, helping local affordable housing efforts. This marks the fourteenth year an AmeriCorps NCCC team has included Habitat on their tour of service.

AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, residential, national service program in which 1,200 young adults serve nationwide each year. During their 10-month term Corps Members, all 18 to 24 years old, work on teams of eight to twelve completing projects that address critical needs related to natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and consecration, energy conservation and urban and rural development. Members work on a series of different projects, typically lasting six to eight weeks each, to mentor students, construct and rehabilitate low-incomes housing, respond to natural disasters, clean up streams, help communities develop emergency plans and address countless other local needs.

The team of ten AmeriCorps NCCC volunteers work eight-hour days, five days a week through March 21, to May 10. During their stay members will help lay sod, plant trees and shrubs, construct housing frames, prepare the construction site and will be given the opportunities to act as site supervisors to improve their leadership skills.

We are forming a Global Village trip to visit our Habitat partners in Ethiopia and we want you to join! The Global Village trip is January 11, 2013 through January 20, 2013 and will include a week of service, building water and sanitation facilities for Habitat families in the capital city of Addis Ababa. This is a brand new project for Habitat Ethiopia, addressing the need of over 80% of Addis Ababa’s residents who don’t have access to clean water and sanitation.

If you are interested in learning more or joining the Global Village trip to Ethiopia, contact Sasha Davis at sasha@habitatportlandmetro.org or 503.287.9529 x17.

And please view the video below to learn more about the efforts we will be participating in.

“We looked at Alex’s messenger bag made from a banner and started figuring out how to craft tote bags from the material,” Said Reinwald.

With the ReStore’s mission to support Habitat through selling re-use materials at its retail outlets, making bags from the billboards and selling them at the ReStore’s three locations seemed a perfect expression of this mission. Using volunteers to cut the bags and local company Spooltown to stitch the bags together minimized costs, making the project feasible. Each bag captures a small section of a billboard, such as part of a hammer, nails, a model’s eye or the moody Portland sky. The result is striking, unique, durable bags handy for carrying all sorts of things.

Billboard bags are on sale now at all three local ReStores!

Check out the production of these bags in this video!

ATLANTA (March 8, 2012) – A recent survey of Habitat for Humanity homeowners indicates significant increases in areas of homeowners’ self-esteem, well-being, overall family health and neighborhood pride. The survey reflects input from more than 320 Habitat homeowners (more than 85% of them women) in 44 U.S. cities who had bought their homes within the past five years, and measures the impact of homeownership and respondents’ satisfaction with the Habitat partnership experience.

Habitat’s Women Build program and Whirlpool co-sponsored the survey, part of a two-week survey conducted by the Center for Applied Research at the University of Southern Indiana. During an International Women’s Day Women Build symposium on women and housing, hosted by Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build program on March 8, researchers presented findings from the survey.

Some key findings from the survey include:

• Nearly 74% of respondents reported that their family state of well-being improved after moving into their Habitat home.
• More than 98% reported moderate to high self-esteem after moving into their Habitat home.
• 93% take pride in their neighborhood.
• 97% felt that Habitat has improved their quality of life.
• 53% felt that their Habitat home has helped improve their job opportunities.
• 57% indicated that adults in the home are furthering their education.
• 74% indicated that their family’s overall health had improved since moving into their home.
• 90% of women surveyed felt a sense of power being part of a Habitat build.
• 84% felt safe in their neighborhood since moving into their Habitat home.
• 56% felt that their children can walk safely to school since moving into their Habitat home.
• 69% have transportation choices in their neighborhood since moving into their Habitat home.
• Before homeownership, only 31% of respondents focused on “green” efforts; after homeownership 71% of respondents had that focus.

Beyond the statistics, the survey yielded more qualitative evidence—in the homeowners’ own words—of the positive impact that decent, affordable housing and the Women Build program have on lives and communities:

• “My son is excelling at school. I think a large part of that is the house. He can have a set bed time. He can have a quiet place to do his homework. We couldn’t do any of those things while staying with someone else.”
• “I gained a lot of courage and strength and faith in my community. I have the ability to focus on building my own business now that I have a home. I love growing a garden. I am very involved in my community. I am continuing my education.”
• “I have learned a lot but the basic skills have helped me make minor repairs since moving into my home.”
• “I have learned to manage my money better. The stress level has gone down. I’m not constantly worrying what is going to break down.”

A cosponsor of the survey, Whirlpool Corporation has been a national partner of Habitat for Humanity for more than 12 years, donating more than 140,000 ranges and Energy Star qualified refrigerators to new Habitat homes built in North America, serving 71,000 families.

Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build recruits, educates and nurtures women to build and advocate for simple, decent and affordable houses in their communities. The first all-women built Habitat house was constructed in 1991, and since Habitat’s Women Build program was formed in 1998, more than 1,900 Habitat for Humanity Women Build homes have been constructed in partnership with Habitat partner families.

Habitat’s International Women’s Day Women Build symposium also featured discussion around international women-led households. Beth Birmingham, associate professor of Leadership and Change at Eastern University in St. Davids, Penn., discussed her research around Habitat for Humanity’s impact in Macedonia, Mexico, Vietnam and Tanzania.

International Women’s Day honors the work of the Suffragettes, celebrates women’s success, and reminds of inequities still to be redressed.

For more information about Habitat for Humanity International, the Whirlpool Corporation or the Center for Applied Research at the University of Southern Indiana, please click here.

Laser levels, earth movers and foundation forms have been hard at work breaking ground on Oregon’s largest Habitat development: 45 homes at Southeast 171st and Division Street.

This development is part of Habitat’s four-year bank of land that was purchased through A World of Hope: It Starts at Home fundraising efforts. As foundations are poured for the first 22 homes, Habitat is reaching out to philanthropic corporations, community organizations and families in order to secure the rest of the funds needed to build all 45 homes.

Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding through Portland Housing Bureau helped us acquire this unfinished subdivision last year, and a generous grant from Meyer Memorial Trust helped speed us through  the design, engineering and pre-development work.  Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, the Jurrens Family Foundation, Walsh Construction, Wells Fargo and Erickson Air-Crane have all stepped up to sponsor homes at 171st. For the first time in Habitat’s history, all specialty builds will be active during the same time and at the same location. The Portland Pride Build, Women Build, Faith Build and Youth United have all raised the necessary funds to begin construction on their sponsored homes.

Other big events planned for this location include the Home Builders Blitz 2012. Professional home builders will mobilize their subcontractors on Monday, June 4, through Friday, June 8, to build several Southeast 171st and Division Street homes, part of a national effort to build 250 Habitat homes in just five days.

The first 22 homes are scheduled for completion by March of 2013. The completion of these homes will then kickoff the second phase that will include the final 23 homes, with construction wrapping up by the end of 2014.

An estimated 10,000 volunteers will work side-by-side with 45 families to build this community from the ground up, providing stability for approximately 150 children.