Habitat World Online

To make a difference for Habitat, young professionals draw on their biggest resource: each other.

When Luke Ellis, a lawyer in Austin, Texas, joined the board of Austin Habitat for Humanity in January 2006, he soon faced a problem that had nothing to do with construction or board governance. He was lonely.

Despite an otherwise healthy volunteer population, there seemed to be a shortage of volunteers like him: young professionals in their 20s and 30s with a little extra time, a little extra cash and a lot of enthusiasm for the affordable housing mission. “I talked with the executive director about it, we talked with the development director, and there was a void for people in that age range in volunteer hours and donating money,” he says. “My task as a new board member was to figure out a way to generate some support.”

He reserved a conference room and invited the most qualified experts he could find to brainstorm methods to reach this demographic: his friends, also 20- and 30-something young professionals. Over the course of a few months, they debated and discussed their way to a movement called Habitat Young Professionals, or HYP (pronounced “hype”). And as they came together, they found they were not alone.

A MOVEMENT IS BORN

About a year before Ellis began organizing young professionals in Austin, Ryan Derrow was at work doing the same thing in Cincinnati. Through a stint as a volunteer coordinator at Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity, Derrow began a steering committee with the ultimate goal of raising enough money to create more volunteer opportunities. Since that time, the young professionals group there has grown to include its own board of directors, an advisory board and a membership list of some 500 individuals.

“The potential in terms of volunteerism is huge for construction,” Derrow says, “but it’s even bigger for fundraising. If there are 300 urban areas in the U.S., and if each one had a HYP raising $10,000, that’s another $3 million. How many houses could that build?”

And yet, the increase in house production may not even be the most significant impact of the young professional movement.

“A lot of the people that are involved now as 20-somethings are already leaders in the community and will continue to grow to be leaders in business, in civic and in religious areas,” Ellis says, describing a characteristic that applies to young professionals throughout the United States. “Our hope is that we establish a lasting relationship with these young professionals so when they’re 46, and they’re making a lot more money, they will have a warm, fuzzy place in their heart for Austin Habitat. We think we’re going to have a really good ripple effect from HYP for years to come.”

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