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How does your chapter recruit for and maintain its membership?
Philadelphia’s Young Professionals are constantly on the hunt for ways to simultaneously socialize and give back to their community, and we try to position our HYP chapter as an appealing choice where they can do just that. Many of our young professionals have had experience with Habitat builds in the past when they were in college or high school and want to continue with us now that they have more free time and disposable income. Others have always been drawn to the Habitat’s message and find that they’re finally ready to get involved.
Some of our best practices for recruiting, engaging, and keeping our members include:
- Consistently letting our members know what Habitat’s Mission is and how they can help with time, talent, and treasure.
- Offering a variety of ways for members to get involved, from low commitment quarterly build days to a moderate commitment level of seasonal committees.
- Maintaining a strong presence on social media where young professionals communicate most often.
- Scheduling Build Days once a quarter, letting our Young Professionals know well in advance of the date when it will be, and making these volunteer experiences fun and worthwhile.
- Understanding that Young Professionals’ time is sparse and valuable and therefore scheduling committee meetings rarely and around the planning of specific events – short bursts of concentrated activity keep Young Professionals excited and engaged.
- Throwing events for Young Professionals with purpose – we have one big fundraiser and one exclusively social event for Young Professionals every year.
- Letting Young Professionals know that you can give back to the community while having fun with like-minded individuals at the same time!
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Chapter spotlights
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On April 17th, Nashville “HYPsters” gathered at McDougals for chicken, beer, and corn hole. The well-attended event served as a kick-off to HYP Nashville’s new membership platform and re-energized the group! We are looking forward to more great events and raising money for our fall build throughout the year. |
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HYPAC Member Bio
Kevin Fustos, advisory council chair
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Kevin Fustos is the advisory council chair for the National Habitat Young Professionals Advisory Council (HYPAC). Kevin has been involved with Habitat Young Professionals since the spring of 2009 when he helped form Habitat Omaha’s YP group. Kevin finished a three year stint as President of the Habitat YP group in 2013 and served concurrently on the Habitat Omaha Board of Directors. Thanks to amazing dedication and hard work by the members of the Habitat Omaha YP, the group has been able to sponsor a house each year since 2012.
Working for the Omaha Public Power District, an electric utility in Omaha, Nebraska, Kevin directs budgeting and administration for the Customer Service and Public Affairs business unit. He is also an owner of Studio 115, a web presence company, which helps small and medium business find their place on the web. He lives just across the river from Omaha in Council Bluffs, IA with his wife, MaryAnn. Traveling, playing pool, and just being out in the community are some of the activities you might find him doing when not working or helping with Habitat.
Kevin has had unique opportunities to see how the young professional movement has grown and organized through experiences with the Omaha Chamber’s Greater Omaha Young Professionals as well as several corporate YP groups. He is inspired by the optimism and altruism he has seen working with YPs and believes the HYPAC will help engage that generation in sharing Habitat’s vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. |
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You can help 1.6 billion people in need of decent housing – watch to learn how.
Habitat for Humanity offers a number of ways for people to get involved to help address the problem of poverty housing around the world. One important action everyone can take is to lend their voice and serve as an advocate. What is advocacy? Let Theo explain! Visit www.habitat.org/advocacy to meet Theo, then click on the link below his video to learn more. Use your voice today!
Save the date!
The Habitat Young Leaders Conference will be in Charlotte on November 7th. The conference will serve to bring together young leaders from HYP chapters, Habitat AmeriCorps Alumni Association chapters, and Campus Chapters. Stay tuned for more information!
Program documents
Habitat Young Professionals is working to finalize program documents such as the operations manual for chapters to use for reference and to begin the official chartering process that will be established in coming months. |
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