Featured news

Hello Care-A-Vanners,

Like many of us, Dave and I are creatures of habit. We have been wearing out the same path to Americus every year, rarely roaming off our course, nor stopping at different campgrounds. At our age, it just feels more comfortable to go with what’s familiar. Most of us got on the road for a new adventure. We look forward to what is around the next bend, but when it comes to picking builds to attend, all too often, we slip back into our comfort zone and go back to the same place year after year.

Well, I am here to tell you there is a whole world of unexplored affiliates out there just waiting for badly needed help and eager to give us a quality building experience.

Dave and I are on a little summer trip with the granddaughter. We stopped by and visited our Care-A-Vanner team in Baraboo at the Wisconsin River HFH. We have had builds there off and on for the last five years. What a great little affiliate. They have expanded their build program and plan more houses going forward and they love Care-A-Vanners. Baraboo is in the resort area of the Wisconsin Dells so there is a lot to do when you are not building. Anybody up for a seven-story roller coaster ride after work? From Baraboo, we went up to Frederic, Wisconsin, to see our team at Wild Rivers HFH in far northwestern Wisconsin in the middle of nowhere – another great affiliate looking to expand their building capacity. Our team was really enjoying its build there and even let us join them for a day of work. Our camping accommodations were at a Christian camp on a lake in rural Wisconsin. It was beautiful there. I am only sorry we couldn’t stay longer! The affiliate staff has been very welcoming and they are already planning their next year’s build schedule with the Care-A-Vanners. Both affiliates had excellent construction managers and partner family participation.

There are many more affiliates similar to what I just described that are waiting for Care-A-Vanners to sign up for their builds, so get out of that rut you are in and check out some new locations. You won’t regret it. Oh, and that path back to Americus – we are taking a new route this year and we hope to stop and see you at builds along the way.

Thank you for all you do to help us build a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Mary Vandeveld
RV Care-A-Vanner program manager
mvandeveld@habitat.org
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3,944: The number of houses former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have helped build, renovate or repair since they began volunteering with Habitat in 1984.

Safety Program Specialist – ReStore
This is a staff position in Atlanta. This specialist will be responsible for supporting Habitat for Humanity International and its U.S. affiliates on all safety matters impacting the ReStore retail operations of U.S. affiliates. As the organization's lead on OSHA compliance for this sector, the specialist will ensure that training materials and content stay current with changes in laws and regulations, and that affiliates receive adequate training to maintain safety performance standards at Habitat ReStore operations and facilities. The specialist will be responsible for engaging and activating the network of volunteer trainers to meet training requirements. The specialist will be responsible for reporting on activities and outcomes related to safety training, loss prevention and program improvements. This position is posted on the Habitat website if you are interested in applying.

Lunches on builds
We do not require affiliates to provide lunches. Many affiliates do not have the resources to offer them, so please do not complain when affiliates ask us to bring our own lunches and be grateful when the affiliate does provide a meal.

Mason builds
Our registrations went pretty well. We had 52 registrations in 10 minutes and all the builds filled in four minutes. Lu was in a location where she had terrible phone service, but good internet and I had good phone service but had trouble with our internal communication system to link me with Lu and our IT department. Despite our technical failures, we got the builds up and available for signup and people’s lockouts fixed. A big thank you to Lu at our registration desk that has to sort all of those registrations out. It will take her a few days!

Cancelled builds
It seems there have been rumors about various builds being cancelled. We only cancel builds if no one signs up, and we do not cancel them until the start date of that build. If we have one rig signed up, the build will go on. If you have a question about a build, please contact the Care-A-Vanner desk for accurate information. The Care-A-Vanner rumor mill is frequently wrong!

Build names
Since we are listing more than 300 builds a year and multiple builds at the same affiliate, in all correspondence to Care-A-Vanner desk, please include at least two of the following: The build number (GV16-0000), the city and state and/or the start date of the build. This is a huge help to us, as we are terrible mind readers!

Having password or login issues?
Contact Lu Tillotson or Mary Vandeveld. Although we can’t fix every issue, we can unlock your account and reset your password and we are quicker to respond than the webmaster!

Pet policy at Sebring, Florida, builds
Camping for the Sebring builds are at the 4-H Camp which is owned by University of Florida and it is the University that has a no pet policy. The plus of the 4-H camp is it is only $12 per night. There is nothing else in the area that can offer that cheap a price for camping. If you have a pet, Blair, the volunteer coordinator at Sebring, will attempt to get you reservations at the local state park, but during January, February and March, reservations are hard to come by, so you may have to find your own accommodation or chose a different build opportunity. I remember not all that long ago when pets were not allowed in any Florida state parks, so for us pet lovers, things are improving in Florida!

Reporting hours
If there is no team leader on your build, Brenda will ask someone to report hours. I see comments on surveys saying the affiliate will report your hours. Affiliates never report hours, so I need to depend on the Care-A-Vanners to let the desk know of those hours. Our statistics are an important way we monitor how our program is doing, so please report them. You can send them to the rvinfodesk@habitat.org or report them to Mary, Brenda or Lu. Don’t forget to report any drop in hours you might do also.

RV Care-A-Vanner Travel with a Purpose Power Point Presentation
If any of you are doing a presentation and would like a PowerPoint about Habitat for Humanity and the RV Care-A-Vanner program, you can download the latest version of RV Care-A-Vanner: Travel with a Purpose from my drop box. Be sure to let me know how your presentation went!

RV Care-A-Vanner promo video
You can download a copy from my drop box and share it with all your RV friends. It is also on our website.

Why We Build stories as always so touching to read. Share your why we build story with fellow Care-A-Vanners by sending your stories to mvandeveld@habitat.org.
Featured builds

Pittsboro, North Carolina, is hosting two builds. One starting on September 11 and the other on October 9. This is a new affiliate and we need some signups! Please help them out to get their two new houses up for two deserving families.
GV16-0364 Phenix City, Alabama, Oct. 16: They need to get a house up this fall and really need a team. Can anyone out there get to Phenix City and help out? I know the affiliate will be grateful for any help. The affiliate is picking up the cost of camping.
Tahlequah, Oklahoma, has just received funding and needs some help this fall. I have listed three two-week builds back to back starting on October 9.
Fall builds: Check out our build list. There are many great opportunities this fall. I hate cancelling builds, so check your schedule and sign up for one today!
Florida builds: I do not anticipate any additional Florida build locations to open up this winter.
Team leader corner

A very special thank you goes out to our August team leaders. They are: Susan Cooper; Kurt Newton; Mark and Susan Okkerse; Pete Hays; Carl and Linda Schmidt; Mark and Suanne Moon; Ray and Mary Kay Johnson; Fred Winslow and Sharon Adair; Michael Daley; David Barber; Diane and George Gravlee; Michael and Gloriann Kramer; Tom and Diane Hinkle; and Roger and Linda Harvey.

Remember, if you’ve been thinking about becoming a team leader but are not sure what’s involved, contact me at bsawyer@habitat.org and I will send you the guidelines. Also, if you serve as team leader at least once during the year, you will receive a very nifty team leader T-shirt!

Welcome letters
When sending your welcome letter to your team, please remember to send me a copy. If you are leading more than one build in the same location, there is no need to send me more than one. I am starting a file of information from the various affiliates so that I will have it to send to teams that have no team leader.

Rosters
If you are unable to read the roster I send you, or things appear to be on the wrong lines, chances are you have a Mac or iPad and Word documents do not format correctly. Just let me know and I will send them in PDF. Also, please remember to include the GV number or at least the date of your build when contacting the Care-A-Vanner desk about a build. It makes it so much easier to find the build you are referencing.

Devotions
Thank you to all who volunteered to help collect and organize devotions. Our devotions coordinator is Bill Oates. He can be reached at just.ducky0109@gmail.com. Please send him your favorite devotions. If you need devotions to add to your file, please contact Bill and he will send them out.

Team diversity
I have written before about religious and spiritual diversity among our volunteers and the need to make all feel welcome. This month, I would like to mention “personality diversity.” People volunteer with the Care-A-Vanners for all kinds of reasons. Some love the comradery of working with others and look forward to social hour that often follows our workday. Others are more solitary, preferring to work alone, and perhaps finding other things to do at the end of the day. While it is important for team leaders to help everyone feel included and part of the team, it is also important to recognize individual styles of relating and respect the choice to not participate socially. Social hour should never be considered mandatory. Important business and announcements can be made at morning meeting, which is mandatory. While our communication styles and individual personalities may vary, what does unite all of us is the commitment to providing a “hand up” so that all people have access to decent, safe, and affordable housing.

Finally, team leaders are needed for:
September 25 – October 9Omaha, Nebraska
October 2 – 16Kearney, Nebraska
October 2 – 16Sebring, Florida
October 16 - 30Mandeville, Louisiana

Thank you and happy hammering!

Brenda Sawyer
Team leader coordinator
bsawyer@habitat.org

Spread the word
Send your RV friends a Care-A-Vanner brochure about this wonderful mission by pasting this PDF into an email or just printing it out to give to fellow RVers in campgrounds.
Safety corner

Uncertainty – The Ultimate Safety Problem

My wife and I went camping (just camping, not a build) with Care-A-Vanner friends Roger and Linda Harvey recently. It was a good chance to get away and just relax, but of course there was Care-A-Vanner conversation in the process – how could there not be? Roger and Linda have been team leaders and, among other things, we talked about safety. Roger related a situation in which a Care-A-Vanner was cutting tails on roof trusses, and injured himself. While a trip to the doctor was needed, making it a “reportable” for OSHA, the outcome was considered satisfactory. Afterwards, the Care-A-Vanner made a comment indicating that “it just didn’t feel right.” In other words, there was some uncertainty. Since then, Roger said that he makes two comments as part of his regular safety talks. They are:
  1. If it doesn’t feel/seem right – don’t. Sometimes we are hesitant to give those feelings credence when they occur, but we shouldn’t be. If it doesn’t feel or seem right, then there is either something wrong or something not understood, and that is not the time to proceed. It is time to stop, ask, get further guidance, help, etc.
  2. If you’re not sure – ask! We often find ourselves in situations where we are not sure of what should be done. That is absolutely the time to stop, ask, get further guidance, help, etc. We tell the new folks that they should always ask, but sometimes we don’t all take that to heart ourselves.
There are some that would say, “It’s a guy thing,” like not wanting to stop for directions, but it’s really an “all of us” thing and the driver is uncertainty. It is really one of the biggest safety issues we face, and one that should not be an issue. Sometimes people don’t stop and ask because they think it will make them look dumb or green. Sometimes they just aren’t sure or don’t feel right. But sometimes it is because they just don’t know that there is an impending problem – and that is where all the rest of us come in by watching each other and saying something helpful when we see a potential issue. The way we respond has huge impact, and if we want people to be receptive, we have to make sure that the response is not “loaded.” Calm, positive and instructive is the way to go.

So, let’s make the two statements part of our regular safety talk process and remind people, and ourselves, that it is OK to not be certain, not be sure, or have something not feel right – and it is the right thing to do right then to stop and ask.

If any of you other team leaders have good suggestions, please pass them along so we can share them – and thanks to Roger and Linda for sharing some of their experiences with us.

Alan Davis
Master Safety Trainer
adavis@habitat.org
Collegiate Challenge and Care-A-Vanners

Want to build in Texas in March with college students?
Would you like to spend one or two weeks in Texas in March? There are currently two listings for an opportunity to help supervise college students next March in Beaumont, Texas. This affiliate hosted students last year and the report back from the Care-A-Vanners was very positive. You need to feel comfortable enough with construction to teach and supervise the students.

The dates are March 5-12, 2017 and March 12-19, 2017 and as of this writing, there are two slots open out of four in the first build and three open out of four in the second build.

In addition, Corpus Christi, Texas, will be listing their Collegiate Challenge build soon and it should be there by the time this newsletter is out.

Diane Gravlee
Collegiate Challenge coordinator
dggravlee@gmail.com

Welcome new Care-A-Vanners

John Alkema, Jim and LaBera Ard, Mike and Cathy Corr, Bob and Jan Duncan, Thomas and Suzanne Frank, Dan and Lisa Hoglund, Jesse Maas, Ray and Janetta Messmer, Linda Mullikin and Brenda Pineda, Linda Kulp and Cliff Pabst, Hal and Mary Perdue, Linda Tally, Tom and Genny Turechek.

Our apologies if we have included a seasoned Care-A-Vanner or if this is duplication. Habitat for Humanity is grateful for the work that you do!
Disaster Rebuild

Remember our mission in disaster response is to come in at the time of the rebuild efforts and to stay until the last house is replaced or repaired. A lot has to happen before rebuilding begins, including permitting, fundraising, FEMA grant application and awards, building capacity at the affiliate, family selection, etc. It is easy to remember the disaster that just happened, but where we need the help is the disaster that happened two or three years ago. HFHI Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery, our partners, are also working with affiliates to do fortified building to reduce injuries and damage to homes and when a disaster does strike. This includes building safe rooms in tornado areas, hip roofs in hurricane zones and using anchoring systems appropriate for the risk. If you are interested in learning more about fortification standards, please review IBHS Fortified for Safer Living Standards. Your knowledge can help our affiliates learn more about these new building practices.

Tithing connections

Our team is more encouraged than ever by the dedication of U.S. affiliates to our global ministry. In fiscal year 2016, which ended on June 30, U.S. affiliates collectively tithed $13.58 million, which helped Habitat serve an additional 3,017 families worldwide. Such incredible support!
We wanted to share some “tithe by the numbers” with you in FY2016: We also celebrate each U.S. affiliate tither, especially these top five tithers by geographical service area size:
Very large: Dallas Area HFH (Texas), HFH of Wake County (N.C.), HFH of Metro Denver (Colo.), Twin Cities HFH (Minn.) and Central Arizona, Inc. HFH (Ariz.).
Large: HFH of Collier County (Fla.), Greater Des Moines HFH (Iowa), HFH Portland/Metro East (Ore.), HFH of Charlotte (N.C.) and HFH of Lee and Hendry Counties, Inc. (Fla.).
Medium: Indian River County HFH (Fla.), Our Towns of North Mecklenburg – Iredell HFH (N.C.), HFH of Cape Cod (Mass.), HFH of Monroe County (Ind.) and Charlotte County HFH (Fla.).
Intermediate: Oconee County HFH (S.C.), Fauquier HFH (Va.), Garland County HFH (Ark.), HFH Owensboro/Daviess County (Ky.) and Southeast Volusia HFH (Fla.).
Small: HFH of Greater Teton Area (Wash.), Sedalia Area HFH (Mo.), Fremont Area HFH (Neb.), HFH of Douglas County, Minnesota (Minn.) and Sisters HFH (Ore.).

Together, we are drawing closer to a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Looking forward to another great year ahead with your support!
Windows to Washington - September

Take 20 seconds to help shape the next 20 years
The United Nations last held its global conference on housing and urban development in 1996. That conference was known as “Habitat II,” a successor to the inaugural “Habitat I,” which occurred 20 years earlier, in 1976. By the way, that global conference in June 1976 inspired the name of our organization. In June 1976, the United Nations created UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency for housing and human settlements. We were founded the following September as “Habitat for Humanity,” rather than the “Fund for Humanity.”

Another 20 years have passed and it’s time for “Habitat III,” which will be held in Quito, Ecuador, this October. A lot has happened since 1996 and, in many ways, the world has changed. While aspects of housing have changed right along with it, the universal need for safe, healthy and affordable housing has not. We may have different construction techniques and more energy efficient homes, but we don’t yet have a world where everyonehas a decent place to live.

Habitat III is a chance to confront the greatest housing challenges of our time. In the 20 years since Habitat II, the world’s population has swelled from nearly 5.8 billion to an estimated 7.4 billion people. Not only that, but the world is urbanizing, and fast. In 2014, the UN estimated that 54 percent of the world’s population lived in cities. By 2050, that number is expected to grow to 66 percent and include more than 6 billion people – more than the entire global population in 1996!

All over the world, people are moving to cities faster than the cities can adapt, creating vast informal settlements and poor living conditions for millions, if not billions, of people. To confront this trend, the Habitat III conference will focus on rapid urbanization at the global scale and on making cities as sustainable as possible.

Habitat III will culminate in an outcome document called the “New Urban Agenda” that will inform the policies of governments around the world for decades to come. That document isn’t just another piece of paper; it’s a chance to make housing a priority for governments at all levels in all parts of the world. In other words, this gathering of world leaders is an opportunity to help them understand just how important it is that everyone on the planet has a safe, healthy and affordable place to live.

As you might imagine, the conference will address a wide range of issues, such as improving land rights and gender equality, how housing provides a platform where everyone has a decent, affordable place to live, the role of the private sector in development, the role of local government in assuring housing quality and the importance of disaster resilient construction and city planning, just to name a few. If we want safe, resilient and sustainable cities, we need housing at the heart of the New Urban Agenda. To accomplish that, we need your help. A chance like this won’t come along again for another 20 years, and the world will look very different then. How it looks – and how the next 20 years of housing policies around the world will look – will depend on whether or not we raise our voices now. Simply put, 20 seconds now can help shape the next 20 years of housing policies worldwide.

A petition to keep housing, particularly access to land for shelter, at the center of Habitat III is gaining signatures from around the world. Take twenty seconds to sign it and share it.