Habitat's Disaster Corps program prepares volunteers to respond and to help with recovery efforts in affiected areas.

Corps Values
New Disaster Corps program trains specialized volunteers

In late September, the Disaster Response Office of Habitat for Humanity International rolled out its newest program, the Disaster Corps.

Made possible through the support of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporation for National and Community Service and developed in partnership with the University of Maryland's Legacy Leadership Institute, the Corps program seeks to provide increased support for disaster-affected Habitat affiliates by engaging babyboomer-generation volunteers with professional and skilled backgrounds.

"This is a different sort of volunteer niche that we're filling," says Jennifer O'Donnell, Habitat's Disaster Response external relations specialist. "We're trying to engage volunteers to help in different capacities, more internal roles--helping to build a strong volunteer/donor database, meeting administrative needs, participating in project management, financial management, strategic planning."

Training topics include assessment and response, family services, disaster preparation and mitigation, and other areas related to disaster response and recovery. Program participants earn the title of Disaster Corps Legacy Leader at the end of the two-week program; facilitators include representatives from the University of Maryland, as well as staff from Habitat's Disaster Response Office, field offices and certain affiliates.

Graduates are placed with a U.S. Gulf Coast Habitat affiliate for two to four weeks, assisting with local short- and long-term needs. "The immediate goal," O'Donnell says, "is to provide more support to Habitat affiliates that are still in the process of recovering from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita." Longer term, the Disaster Response Office hopes to find ways to replicate these four training sessions in response to future events across the United States and around the world.

The first training session took place at the end of September in Washington, D.C.; West Palm Beach, Fla., followed in November. Future dates include Phoenix in January and Las Vegas in February. Individuals with questions should contact Elaine Williams at (248) 396-5735 or ewilliams@habitat.org; individuals interested in applying for the program should contact Laura Wilson at (301) 405-2470 or lwilson@umd.edu.

Spreading the Word, Near and Far

'I Helped Build It' PSA goes global

This fall, Habitat for Humanity released an international version of the popular "I Helped Build It" public service announcement to television stations both in the United States and overseas.

The PSA features Habitat homeowners, volunteers and staff at build sites around the world, sharing in their own languages their contributions to the building process.

"In the United States, our aim is to broaden people's understanding about Habitat for Humanity and to illustrate that we build houses and change lives around the world--not just across the town," says Jennifer Lindsey, senior director of international and advocacy communication. "Outside the United States, where Habitat is less well-known, our goal is to raise awareness of Habitat for Humanity in general and to build a base of supporters."

This release marks the first time Habitat headquarters has produced a PSA specifically for audiences outside the United States. Three of Habitat's area offices, however, already have experience in creating public service announcement campaigns in the Asia/Pacific, Europe/Central Asia and Latin American/Caribbean regions. Habitat national organizations in Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, India, the Philippines, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and the United States offered key support, hospitality and assistance to film crews.

Concrete Results
Affiliates experiment with building technology

To casual passersby, a recent Habitat for Humanity build site in Des Moines, Iowa, might have looked more like playtime than work, thanks to a building technology known as insulated concrete forms, or ICFs. The forms are hollow, reinforced foam blocks that, when placed in a line, allow for poured concrete walls. "And then it becomes a bunch of grown people playing with Legos," says Mark Elliott, Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity development director.

Lots of affiliates use the forms as a cost-efficient, volunteer-driven means of tackling more specialized processes like pouring foundation walls and constructing basements. This summer, Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity joined those affiliates - New York's Habitat for Humanity of Westchester County and Missouri's Kaw Valley among them - that have built entire houses using the forms.

ICFs require a bit of a learning curve to master and are a less traditional, more expensive way to build - construction costs can increase anywhere from 8 percent to 10 percent. Close attention must be paid early on to plumbing and wiring requirements, and homeowners must still remain vigilant to termites, which can burrow between ICFs and siding up to the roof.

Still, the technology has advantages. "It's stronger than traditional framing," says Mark Van Lue, Habitat for Humanity International's director of Construction and Environmental Resources. "Anywhere you're dealing with high winds and either hurricane or tornado activity, it's going to be a very strong structure. It's fire resistant. The products are impervious to water. You don't really have mold/mildew issues."

In the long term, families also may benefit from lower energy bills and reduced insurance costs. All of which - plus concrete's environmentally friendly sustainability - attracts affiliates like Des Moines. "We need to look at whether we can bring the cost more in line with our affordability issue," says Elliott. "If we can make it work financially, we want to explore it."

According to Van Lue, Operation Home Delivery currently is assisting affiliates along the U.S. Gulf Coast that are considering ICF construction, as well as those already using the technology for foundation work.