Habitat for Humanity East Bay - Women's Crew

Did you know that Habitat for Humanity has a Women's Crew?

Here's what their website has to say about the All Women's Crew:

"The All Women's Crew

Are you a woman interested in volunteering to help families build simple, decent, affordable homes? Would you enjoy learning construction and home repair skills in a fun, safe, team, learning environment? Then Habitat for Humanity East Bay’s All Women's Crew is for you!

The All Women's Crew provides a meaningful and rewarding experience for women who volunteer and financially support Habitat's mission. As they assist low-income families build their homes, Women's Crew members also acquire skills they can use to repair and maintain their own homes."

http://www.habitateb.org/women

As a woman who has always been interested in construction and renovations, I am super excited to find out that Habitat for Humanity encourages women to learn how to build homes!  For those of you who need to fix things around the house more out of necessity than desire, I still think this program can be highly beneficial. Or if your someone who is able to hire contractors to work on your home, this is the type of program that can give you a basic understanding of how construction works.  I strongly recommend having some idea of what a contractor is going to do for you and why.

Habitat for Humanity is one of those charities you can see working right before your eyes.  You don't have to be particularly skilled to participate, and in fact, you will actually receive free training so you can help put a house together.  Where is the downside to volunteering with this organization?

I love the idea of joining my community to help build homes for those who may otherwise never get an opportunity to have their own home.  Here's another thing that impresses me about the Habitat for Humanity approach.  They work at creating sustainable solutions and are aware that their success is dependent on how well their new part of the neighborhood meshes with and is accepted by the existing community.  Without this attitude it's very easy to start off with good intentions and end up with ghettos.  

According to their website, here's Habitat's view:

"Developing neighborhood groups to unify the Habitat community and capture the potential of a Habitat neighborhood once homeowners have moved in. With the structure of a community group or homeowners’ association, neighbors can come together to address all kinds of issues in their community while building strong relationships together. "

http://www.habitateb.org/communitybuilding

Another area that impresses me is that there are many different volunteer opportunities.  I would suggest checking out their website http://eastbay.volunteerhub.com/Events/Browse.aspx, but here are some of the different groups they focus on offering volunteer opportunities for:

Faith Groups

Construction Volunteers

Youth Groups

Women's Groups

Corporate Groups

Non-Construction

Material Donatations

I'm really excited about the opportunity to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and I'll keep you posted on local builds and other opportunities.  I hope I see some of you out there!