Last week and this week, more than 60 volunteers are participating in the 4th annual Rainbow Build, which aims to raise awareness for issues involving affordable housing in the LGBTQ community. It’s an opportunity for LGBTQ volunteers and allies to spend a day building with us and learning about the unique housing challenges that impact this community.
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity has some of the best volunteers in the world—literally! Lou Cristan, 3Mgives regular volunteer extraordinaire, was one of only 20 selected to receive the 2017 3Mgives Global Volunteer Award for outstanding service and impact to the lives of others.
If you are looking for an image of strength, perseverance, and determination, look no further than a Habitat homeowner.
If you partner with Twin Cities Habitat for home repairs, you’ll get to know America Lindgren. As the A Brush with Kindness Program Coordinator, America is with homeowners from start to finish on their home repair journey—from ensuring applications are complete to signing off on the completed project. And while she coordinates projects with families from a distance, she knows first-hand the trials and tribulations of trying to preserve and adapt a home.
Homes and families are the foundation of successful communities. Affordable homeownership brings stability to families; it means parents can be ready for unexpected emergencies, kids can dream of attending college one day, and families can spend time together in a safe place. This stability—and the broader economic impact of homeownership—is the topic our Women of Habitat Hope Builders Luncheon on Tuesday, October 3 at the Minneapolis Hilton.
In case you missed it, the ReStore team had some fun at the State Fair, and announced their big anniversary sale, coming up this Saturday!
“There’s a stark contrast from before we had a Habitat home and had roots planted and after,” Lynnisha says, remembering life before her mom, Betty, bought a home with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity in 1991.
Dave Engh is a long-term volunteer who has been with Habitat since 1993 and has gotten involved in many different ways. Dave is the current crew leader for our St. Andrews volunteers, and he's regularly out on site with The 3Mgives Habitat Project. He also repairs Habitat tools at our warehouse, which saves a lot of time and money. One of Dave's favorite volunteer roles is serving as a Neighborhood Family Partner for many families. In this role, Dave gets to see the homeowners after they are living in their new home and gets to check-in with them on a regular basis.
For a nonprofit innovation can be tricky. Unbridled goodwill can result in ineffective mission creep if you’re not careful. But nonprofits that don’t innovate, just like businesses that don’t, run the risk of becoming obsolete.
Allie Berg joined Twin Cities Habitat to find a way to put her faith into action, which just happens to be one of our core values. She started as a Faith Relations intern, and discovered a passion for working directly with families who partner with Twin Cities Habitat. Now, she oversees all of Twin Cities Habitat’s outreach and intake processes, and families are front and center in her mind each day.