Welcome all, to the adventure of the 2018-19 AmeriCorps members! Every year, our AmeriCorps members take a trip to learn more about themselves and their service. 

Whether that's personal growth that could extend to their site, learning new ideas from another affiliate, or gaining more passion toward Habitat's mission, our members always come back with something to bring to the table in their own service.

This year, our trip was one with the goal of learning about the affordable housing crisis in one of the most expensive cities in the country to live in. I'll take you along for the ride of a lifetime from Minnesota, through St. Louis, and on to Nashville, Tennessee. 

Guest Blog by Meghan Longtin

On January 21, AmeriCorps members across Minnesota gathered in service to honor the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by serving at a different organization than their own service site. Each year, these events are sponsored by the InterCorps Council of Minnesota, and all the State, National, and VISTA programs have the opportunity to come together and make an impact.

This year, members were serving as volunteers doing activities such as: sorting and collecting donations, event support, serving food, and other various tasks to help our communities on and around MLK Day!

In September began the new AmeriCorps year, and with that always comes change. This year; however, brought more changes than just new members. Keep riding along through this blog to meet the current members and new roles this year has brought.

In October, the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps members went on a retreat at YMCA Camp Ihduhapi to focus on service, team building, and learning about our leadership styles.

Guest Blog by Tom Prittinen
Twin Cities Habitat Summer AmeriCorps Member

Hey folks!  As a guest writer for this blog, let me introduce myself: 

My name is Tom Prittinen, and I had the opportunity to be one half of the AmeriCorps presence on the Maple Grove build site this summer.  I am a political science major at Saint John’s University, and plan to graduate in the spring. 

This year, Twin Cities Habitat hosted 29 AmeriCorps members who dedicated themselves to a term of service supporting volunteers, homebuyers, and staff. Beginning in September, the crew served in a full-time, 40-hour per week capacity, and helped to build 50 new homes, complete 80+ projects through our A Brush With Kindness home repair program, organize community events, and coordinate 16,000+ volunteers.

As the AmeriCorps calendar year comes to a close, we wanted to celebrate the wonderful accomplishments of the 2017-18 AmeriCorps cohort in Twin Cities communities all across the metro.

Our volunteers are not the only ones giving of their time and energy to serve Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity’s mission. This National Volunteer Recognition Week, we are taking a day to acknowledge our AmeriCorps and Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) members. Both are programs under the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) that seek to support people of all backgrounds in serving their communities.

Guest Blog by Lillie Taggart 
AmeriCorps Member at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

If you read Nick's last post about our time working at Jerry's house, you'll recall our work in Orange and exploration of Texas' Golden Triangle. We were far from home and tired from work, but there was more in store!

Our next step was Austin for a day of relaxation and play. A tour around the capitol building drove home factually what we had already learned experientially: Texas is quite different from Minnesota.