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Habitat homeowner shares wisdom through mentoring
When Joy Knowlin received a phone call at work to notify her that she’d been accepted as a prospective Habitat homeowner, the news was too good for her to absorb. “I still didn’t believe her until I saw the letter,” Joy remembers. “I mean, we’re talking about homeownership.’”
A few months after being accepted into the program, Joy was paired with another Habitat homeowner to accompany her through the process. Her partner answered questions both from her own experiences and by tracking down new information — a comforting service that contrasted with the experiences of one of Joy’s friends, who had purchased a home through a different program and struggled to navigate unfamiliar procedures by herself.
After months of saving, building and waiting, Joy received the keys to her new house and came away from the experience with a strong desire to pass along the assistance she’d been given. She currently mentors a new homeowner and sympathizes with the impatience homeowners may feel as their dreams take shape before their eyes.
“When I moved into my house, I just wanted to give back,” she says. “For them to say, ‘We want you to be a homeowner’. … It’s no skin off my back to help someone else.”