Last Week at Habitat

I will not be able to blog about my last week at habitat because this blog is due before that. But for Friday i will be attending the Christmas party and Saturday I will be on the build site freezing early in the morning. But i just want to reflect on what i have learned through out my internship. Habitat is a christian based non profit that builds affordable housing. They act as the lender to the homeowners and use volunteers as the labor.

Habitat for Humanity in other word affordable housing on crack. Not only do they supply affordable housing but they are innovated in their ways and pass a lot of other home builders in the going green movement. This truly was an awesome internship were i was able to learn a lot on community development, sustainability, and affordable housing.

First Friday

It has been a few months since i have attended because i did not feel comfortable in a cast around all those people. I have very surprised to see how much it has grown. They now shut down just Roosevelt street from 7th street to central avenue. There are more food trucks and vendors on the street which is awesome to see. I have been attending First Fridays since i have been in high school and they have drastically changed from just a few local artist and galleries to streets being shut down, live entertainment, food trucks, and vendors lined up and down the street. The crowds have definitely gotten younger than they have started but overall i think this is a great event for Phoenix and brings a lot of foot traffic into downtown even if it is just on night a month.

ASU and Habitat

As a student i had no idea that there is a Habitat for Humanity campus chapter. They just recently started to come out and build on the weekends. This Saturday was maybe their third build day that they participated in since i have been interning with Habitat. It is pretty cool to see student take part in a group like this and come out and volunteer as much as they do.

Incomprehension to other ASU groups they are all ways on time and will to help out on any house that we they are assigned to even if it means splitting them up from their group to help out on a house that does not have enough volunteers. So, high five to these ASU students.

Snowboarding

Just made the final plans for my first snowboarding trip this season, I am super excited and a little nervous. I have only been out of my cast since Halloween and would hate to re-tear what i just had repaired. Therapy has been going great but i still do not have my full range of motion back and am still pretty weak in that hand. The doctor and therapist both said i should be good to go as long as i get a wrist guard to wear while I'm snowboarding.

With my new gloves and good bill of health (kind of) im ready to hit the slope right after Christmas. I will be up in sunrise for a week after the holiday and than hopefully up in park city for a couple weekends until the snow melts.

End of the semester

Now that the end of the semester is here the thoughts of whats next has been popping into my head. What to do after i graduate, try to get a job go on to grad school or possibly move to another state. I've been thinking that i would like to work and get a little more job experience before going on to grad school. but as far as moving out of Phoenix is something that i have been thinking about quite a bit lately. I know that i would like to stay on the west coast but possibly move to the northern western states possibly. Somewhere like Portland, Seattle, or Colorado have been places that i have been thinking about. I guess i have some traveling to do before i decide.

Finals

This is a rough weekend for me. I have two finals for my online classes to study for on top of the homework that is already due. I really hate it when professors give you nothing to do during the holiday and than just pile up two weeks of work the next week. I personally would not of mind doing it over the turkey day break.

The other thing is tomorrow is football Sunday and the Vikings and the Cards is gonna be a good game to watch so tonight is crunch time in hope to spend tomorrow at a bar watching football. Hope your guys weekend is going well.

Build Day

It was FREEZING this morning and i almost died. but i honestly felt like everyone was working a lot more than normal today maybe to keep themselves moving so they wouldn't be as cold. We did have a group today of Army recruiters and wow, i think that they smoked as much as they worked i was a bit surprised by that. And man do they have a get up of army gear from head to toe, now that is Army Strong.

PICS

I just wanted to share some pics with you guys to show you what i have been up to.

Becoming a Family

I'm not if I have posted about this before, but i know a lot of people think that habitat just gives houses away. But honestly it is not an easy process, there are a handful of different requirements a family must meet before applying to become a future home owner at habitat. And believe it or not given the recent financial crises we are in habitat has not seen an increase in the amount of families turning to habitat.

Because each family has to have good credit, a steady income for two years, and proof of living in substandard housing. Habitat actually goes out to the applying families home with a video camera to see where this family is living and if it is considered to be unlivable. The only way they have describe to me on what it takes to be considered as substandard is that you know it when you see it. I personally have not been able to experience this but not sure if i would be able to handle it after the stories i have heard.

Contacting the City

I honestly hate hate hate trying to get a hold of the parks and rec department in the city of phoenix. Today i spent my time trying to get a hold of them again to reserve space for the end of the year thank you BBQ for volunteers. They really should have a more efficient way of contacting them or to reserve spaces. I have noticed that cities that charge to reserve areas are much easier to get a hold of.

Today in the office i was talking office i was talking to my boss on when my last day will be, so next Saturday will be the last Saturday that i will be up and building houses at 5:30 am. SO, for that reason i am very excited but also sad about not being a part of habitat anymore. I know i can always go and volunteer on the weekends and work with them but it will be nice to sleep in for a couple weekends.

Concret Build

Sponsored by Salt River Materials Group

About Project:

Salt River Materials Group (SRMG) has sponsored the construction of a home at 11 N 28th Ave. This home will seek LEED Platinum certification, and achieve net zero energy consumption. The home’s design and construction techniques were developed in partnership with SRMG and many generous in-kind donors.

Certifications:

• Seeking LEED® Platinum Certification
• Seeking Environments for Living Certification
• Seeking Energy Star Certification

Dedication

Today I started off at the job site like normal getting everyone checked in and where they need to be. We have a dedication for our legacy build and concrete build today so i had to leave the site and go check that. During the dedication we thank the sponsors on the house, the team leaders, and volunteers. This dedication was a but more special than others just because it was our Net zero Legacy build that we did in five days.

This was actually pretty awesome to be at, the mother couldn't even bring herself to say anything because she was so emotional. But her High school aged son got up to thank the sponseers and volunteers and he was so well spoken, and our go green guys did so well on this project it turned out amazing. There may be a link of the video up on the habitat website sometime soon, ill keep ya posted.

Last Sat. Build Day

I know this is a little late to post about last Saturdays build, but better late than never. We were short site host(a volunteer that comes every Saturday to sign in volunteers and get waivers at each house) that Saturday so i had to fill in at that house. Just my luck the group we volunteering that day was ASU's pre-law frat and sorority. And even pre-law students can't get to the build site on time. I can't remember if i have mentioned that every ASU group that comes out is at least 30 mins late if not more. Not only were they late they all rolled up with their own red bull cooler filled to the brim. Well, i guess its better than the group that showed up in flip flops.

It was also a every cold day that drissled on and off throughout the whole build day. Because of the rain we had to stop all of the roof work because it is a safty issue to have poeple on the roof while they are wet because it gets so slippery. But i do have to say i have been learning a lot lately on building a house, i am becomin quite handy :) Do i see toolbelt purchase in the future, i think so.

Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona has been selected as one of the Legacy Projects for the 2009 Greenbuild International Conference & Expo.

Habitat will build a Net Zero Energy Affordable home during the five days of the conference, November 9 - 13, 2009. Habitat will pursue LEED Platinum Certification for the home, located at 20 N 27th Drive, approximately 3 miles from the Convention Center.

“This project shows that the LEED for Homes Rating System is successfully being used for low income housing and can be duplicated affordably by other organizations as well”, said Roger Schwierjohn, President and CEO. “Through hands on building, touch and feel tours and educational materials, Habitat is bringing green building to the everyday person.”

The home will be open to the general public for tours during the conference. If you are interested in volunteering on the construction of the home please contact HFHCAZ in early September to check availability.

GreenBuild Confrence

This week instead of working in the office i worked our booth at the GreenBuild Conference. It was pretty cool to go to and a good change from office work, but i noticed it was mostly just green trades like wood floors, counter top venders which was cool to see all the different products you could use if you were in development.

I'm not sure how much it coast to get into the show but it was more than what the volunteer for habitat wanted to pay. He owners a solar panel company i guess and he donates them to Habitat but the whole time he was hacking his company to people that came into our booth. It was so annoying, i did not enjoy and really your volunteering to help out why did you bring all your business cards with you? Also i would just like to say there were about five people that came up to me asking what Habitat does????!!!WOW, REALLY??? What rock have those poeple been living under.

Wall Raising

Today we started the last house in our 32 house community off of 7th street and Baseline. This wall raising was probably my favorite so far. The future Home Owner is a single mother and her six year old son, who is completely blind. At every wall raising the home owner is able to say a few words to the volunteers and sponsors before the first wall is raised. This little boy was the most polite and well spoken kid i have heard at the wall risings. It was really touching to see how excited he was and to watch his mom run his hands over the walls so he can see how far along the house is.

Not only is this family getting a new house with habitat but the little boy made a wish with the make a wish foundation to have a nice backyard. His wish was answered and when habitat hands over the keys, make a wish foundation will come in and give him a backyard that every little boy would want. This habitat build really does stand out from the others.

Another week

This week was pretty uneventful i was basically doing office work for my days at habitat. Some time last month the one of the other volunteer coordinators left habitat and I've been thinking that because of that my internship has suffered because it seems like I'm stuck doing the petty office work instead of learning about the non profit and how it runs. Hopefully this will change soon, im just not sure how to address this if it doesn't.

In the field on Saturday, we have started our new schedule of starting the build day at 6:30, woooHooo, one extra hour of sleep. But, i have been noticing that there have been a lot of ASU groups coming out to the build such as frats and sororities but no groups with any interest in affordable housing or non profits. It really is interesting to see what groups come out for these builds for som houses it changes weekly .

City of Scottsdale and Habitat

This weekend we had a build sponsored by the city of Scottsdale and they asked us to set up a lunch for them which is not something that we usually do. But in the end it was pretty cool we contacted a boyscout group asking if anyone of them would like to make lunch for the group to work towards their community service badge. I'm not sure what department they were with but the guy that put it all together was very concerned with why Habitat does not build in Scottsdale. Well one we don't have land and seemed like he wanted to work with us on doing some rebuilds but maybe this is wrong of me to assume but I'm not sure how residents would react on have a community of affordable housing in there neighbor. The "Not in my Backyard" still every much affects affordable housing because not many people are educated on it and the real effects it has on a neighborhood.

I think educating residents on the benefits of having organizations like habitat build in there neighborhood. Some may think that we just give houses away to anyone that has not been able to lift themselves out of the poverty level. The families we give houses to have to have good credit and job history, meaning they have to of held a job for a period of time not jump from one to another. The families also have to put in more than 400 hours of sweat equity hours to know the true value of their home and meet the people that take time out of their lives to build them a house. The houses habitat builds raises housing coast in the neighborhoods they build because these are all brand new platinum lead houses, meaning we recycle and build with recycled materials. These house aren't exactlly what someone might think of as affordable houing.

This Week in Habitat

This week in the office i was working n finding parks AGAIN, and I noticed something. In the city of Phoenix there is no charge to reserve picnic areas in the parks but in the city of Tempe there are fees. I dont know about you guys but I have noticed a dramatic difference in the quality of parks between the two city's and maybe its not a bad idea to charge fees because it goes towards the up keep of the parks. If you visit the parks in these two place you would probably think the same thing.

One the job site this week we started two more houses making it a total of nine houses being built right now in the Phoenix Ora Vista community. Now, I'm not sure if it was a full moon or something but it was the wierdest day Saturday. I just don't understand why you would volunteer and come out at 6am to build house and be a jerk about it. If you dont want to be here don't because we don't want to have to deal with you. Also we get a lot of churches around the valley that sponsor a house and its amazing but they always bring too many poeple to their site which is a saftey issue for us and its too hard for our skilled leaders to manager that many unskilled volunteers. We have tryed numerus times to explain this to the church groups but it never changes anything, how do we change this ?

This past week at habitat has been a bit frustrating. I have this job of coordinating the end of the year thank your party for all the volunteers an day boss continues to get on me about this, but what i have found is that one it is too early every park that i have been able to get a hold of does not want to talk about a party in may until February. Which is a bit discouraging when it comes to asking places to donate food and prizes. She also wants options not just one or two parks but an array of them from central Phoenix to Tempe. Do you know how hard it is to get a hold of any one in the parks and rec department, these must have been an area were there have been a lot of cut backs.

As far as working on the job sit, it has gotten to be a bit more exciting. Being able to watch a house be built by the family that will live in it nail by nail is pretty amazing. I believe we have 6 or 7 houses going right now so there is always something to do and amazing progress. But as i have watched and started talking to the habitat construction department it seems that even though this company has been built off of volunteers there is a lot of correction that happens on the days volunteers are not there. So, my question is, is there any better way to build a house with people that have no experience or is it more important to keep the heart of the company and spend money and time on corrections?

First Day on Site

This past week at Habitat i was finally assignede my project to work on. I will be in charge of putting together or at least starting the end of the year thank you party for the volunteers. Being a nonprofit and having a very very small budget this will be a challenge to get everything donated and to find a venue. I need to find a park to hold 250 people and possible donated space. Let me know if you have any ideas.

This Saturday was my first day of being on site at 5:30 am, by the way starbucks is not open that early, I pretty much made sure all the volunteers went to there assinged lot number and got everything they need. I also had to take pictures of everything going on wich was a little hard only having one hand but i made it work. We also had a wall raising for one family which was pretty excisting and everyone on that job site signs the walls of the house with blessing to the family, pretty awesome to wittness.

FIRST WEEK

This past Thursday and Saturday were my first two days at Habitat for Humanity. Every Thursday I will be in off at their Phoenix office doing basic office duties like copying, data entry, calling volunteers,keeping up there facebook/myspace (they are very excited to finally be on facebook and myspace) and in the future I will be doing volunteer orientations and working on projects. I'm pretty sure that my "big project" is to coordinate the end of the year Thank You BBQ for the volunteers. So looking for a location and donations are our big focuses for that event.

Every Saturday I will be on site at 5:30 am, yes that's right 5:30, in the morning every Saturday to coordinate volunteers and make sure they are taken care of and building houses. So, there go my Friday nights, but i am honestly really excited about this internship. This past Saturday we had a kick off breakfast for all the team leaders, shift leaders, and house leaders who are all volunteers themselves but have been doing it so long that they are now able to lead the builds. After sitting down and talking to these volunteers that find being a part of what habitat such a privilege they offer so much of themselves to the organization really got me excited about interning here this fall. They do so much more than i thought they did and there is so much to learn there I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it all in by the end of this semester.