Current Opportunities:
Sponsors
for a Habitat shed
Construction
Committee Member
Construction Volunteers
Development
Committee Members
Family
Services Committee members
Family
Shepherd
Plumbers
ReStore
Task Force Committee members
Site
Selection Committee member
We are looking for groups willing to sponsor the funding and building of an 8 x 8 foot storage shed for our Habitat houses. We have an ongoing need for each Habitat house we build. This is a way that small groups can afford to support our building needs. The cost to sponsor a shed is $550. Usually our sheds can be built in a day.
If your group, or business would like to support this project with money, but have no desire to do the actual construction, that is not a problem. We have construction volunteers as well as Partner Families in need of sweat equity hours that can help us with the actual labor to build the shed.
This would be on ongoing need, as we supply a shed with each house. However, if your group is only interested in helping with one shed, that would help us as well. We can continue to recruit other groups to assist with our ongoing need. This donation of funding would be considered tax deductible by IRS standards.
A great project for youth groups. No training requirements necessary. For the actual construction of the shed, we will provide a crew leader to give instructions and assistance as needed.
Expected Outcome
Each Habitat house built
will have a storage shed to safely store their outdoor equipment,
lawnmower, gas, etc.
Construction Committee Member
Our construction committee is always
looking for new members to help with its work. If you have construction
experience and like to volunteer, then this is the committee for you. This
committee meets monthly to plan for our affiliate's construction schedule.
The committee divides the work, so that no one person is overwhelmed by
the magnitude of it. Some members help get the plans approved through the
county permit department. Some members help put up batter boards.
Some
seek assistance in the foundation work on our Habitat houses. Some
actually serve as crew leaders in the construction work itself. As far as
construction training, if you haven't had any before, we can train you. If
you have no construction experience, we would obviously NOT make you a
crew leader on the construction team, responsible for other volunteers. We
would expect you to read and follow our safety rules for the jobsite.
Construction Volunteers
People willing to do construction work on the current Habitat
house. Construction experience helps, but is not necessary. We can only
take 16 years or older on the construction site. We usually work on
Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. until 3-4:00 p.m. Tools and crew leaders will be
provided by Habitat. Please contact the Berkeley County Habitat office at
761-8989 if you want to be placed on the volunteer
schedule.
Development Committee Members
We are looking for people interested in
joining a committee to help solicit funds, materials, and sponsors for
houses. We also need to do an annual fundraiser. We have not gotten one
together yet, and need something that we can do annually, and people will
remember easily and look forward to, such as Callen Lacy's Duck Race, or
something along that line. If you are good at asking businesses and
churches for money and don't take "NO" as rejection, then you are the
guy or gal for us. Please consider joining this committee. It really
needs some new energy! It would be helpful if you have had some
fundraising experience before, but a willing spirit is just as
important.
Family Services Committee members
We are looking for people willing to serve
on the Family Services Committee. The purpose of this committee is:
1) to help select partner families;
2) to nurture the partner families and homeowners that we have in the program;
3) to oversee the Homeowner Education classes that the affiliate offers monthly.
Once a year, we take applications for our
program. The Family Selection
committee reviews the applications and
does a home visit to check on their current housing situation in teams of
two. One member of the committee does income verification and another
checks their debt to income ratio by reviewing their credit reports. The
application period is a team effort for the committee. Doing the home
visits can be a life altering experience. We do
the training necessary
for those people willing to be on the committee. We would pair a new
volunteer with a 'veteran' volunteer who will walk them through the family
services process.
Family Shepherd
We
are looking for persons willing to be a family shepherd, who will be
assigned a partner family to 'shepherd' through the process of going from
signing the partner agreement with the Habitat affiliate, through to
building their Habitat house. A shepherd is a person who agrees to be the
advocate for one partner family. They are the liaison person between the
Habitat for Humanity affiliate and the partner family. The time line of
this process with the partner family
could take as little as 1 year and
as much as 2. We just want to make sure that our partner families don't
fall through the cracks. While Habitat staff can get really caught up in
the 'building' of the houses, we need to make sure that the partner family
has someone whose only interest is being there for them. We require the
shepherds to attend a once a month meeting of the Family Services
Committee, which currently meets on the first Thursday at 5;15pm, for no
more than 2 hours. Once a week phone calls to the partner family are
requested. Training will be supplied as needed.
Plumbers
Our
Habitat for Humanity affiliate is looking for a few good plumbers willing
to donate some time and services. We especially need a plumber that is
able to help us with drawing up the plumbing plans for our habitat houses,
to file with our permit packages. We also need plumbers willing to donate
time to rough-in and finish plumb our habitat houses. If you are a
licensed plumber and would like more details, please contact our office by
phone or email. For this volunteer position, we would ask that you be a
licensed plumber. Or, if you have extensive
plumbing experience, we
also need plumbers' assistants.
ReStore Task Force Committee
members
There are five Habitat for
Humanity affiliates in the tri-county area. A Habitat ReStore runs along the line of a
Goodwill store. The difference is that a ReStore only accepts donations of
materials, appliances, furniture, etc that have to do with "houses."
(Anything used to build, remodel, refurnish, etc) A ReStore provides the needed funding for general operating
expenses for the affiliate.
We are also hoping that we will get additional funds to assist with land purchases and supplemental funding for Habitat houses.
We also need volunteer in the our Restore in
Goose Creek. We have no training requirements at this time. ReStore phone
number is 843 572-9191 or email us your interest at
restore@berkeleyhabitat.org .
Site Selection Committee member
Our Site Selection Committee is in need of
adding people to help find 'affordable lots' to build a Habitat for
Humanity house on. We have a very limited budget for buying land and we
have to diligently seek out buildable lots that we can afford. We
currently have someone looking into forfeited land from the Berkeley
County tax rolls. However, we need persons willing to look into other
avenues for finding affordable land for our affiliate. We have a
chairperson for this relatively new committee, but need other folks
willing to help with finding land to build more Habitat houses on. There
is no training requirements, other than a willingness to learn and work
with others for a common goal of finding affordable and buildable land.
If you wish to know more please contact Tom Chamberlin, Executive Director, by email at office@berkeleyhabitat.org or by calling us at (843) 761-8989.
Page last updated 2/9/2008
