Habitat for Humanity
Oakland - Clarkston
St. Daniel Catholic Community
Christian Services

Welcome

The Clarkston/Coalition of the North Oakland Habitat for Humanity is dedicated to building comfortable, affordable housing for a needy family.  Our goal is to build a home in the near future.

The head chairperson for this committee is Fred Novack.  Meeting are being held to get our program off the ground.  If you would like more information about upcoming meetings just call Fred at 248-623-2950.  

Many of you may be wondering what Habitat for Humanity is all about.  Below is some information you may find helpful.

From Vision to Action—SEEING THE VISION AND HEARING THE CALL. You have come to the decision that you must do something about the problem of poverty housing in a community. More than likely you have mixed feelings about the idea. One moment you are on fire – ready to start construction today and the next minute you wonder how on earth your congregation could undertake such a project. Take a moment to look at the big picture.

When congregations agree to build Habitat homes, the local Habitat affiliate and the congregation each make specific commitments. These are the typical arrangements.

Construction schedules vary. Some groups choose to work every weekend for 10 weeks or so. Large multifamily units may take even longer. Your local Habitat affiliate can help you develop a building schedule with a definite starting and ending date.

The local Habitat affiliate will be able to help you determine how many people you need, depending on the size of the project and the building schedule. Keep in mind that in addition to seeking construction volunteers, you will need to recruit people to organize the project and to take care of many tasks other than the actual building.

If you have prayerfully considered the idea of sponsoring a Habitat house and if you have gathered specific information about what is required, begin talking with close friends in your congregation. Remember that they may not have spent the amount of time that you have considering the idea. They may or may not share your enthusiasm. The more they hear however, the more likely they are to get excited.

Talk to friends in other congregations too. They may be interested in forming a partnership and building the house together. Do you want to create a diverse partnership?

Next speak to people who make decisions and make things happen in the congregation. Set up meetings with different groups and recruit Habitat speakers. Have Habitat homeowners and people who have led their churches in a Habitat project tell their stories. Their successes can be very inspiring.

If your church has a mission statement or vision statement, examine it to see if it speaks about putting faith into action. Introduce the idea that building a Habitat home would allow many churches members to serve other as Jesus calls us to do.

Sponsoring a house requires the work of many people with various abilities. Along with construction volunteers, you need good communicators, people to direct food service, people who can organize and serve on committees and willing souls to take care of the tasks you never anticipated. If you are working with other congregations, be sure to divide the responsibilities so each congregation has ownership in the project.

Someone from your church (or one of the partner churches) has to be in charge. The project director oversees all the committees and serves as the liaison between the church(es) and the affiliate throughout the project. All information should flow through this person. If you are working with other congregations, each church should have a primary contact person as well to get information out to its members.

Construction of the house is under the supervision of the affiliate. Your church, however, may have members who are skilled construction workers or who possess other skills necessary in house building. These people may be asked to take leadership positions. Individuals with little or no building experience but who are willing to work hard and get their hands dirty are also essential. With some direction and encouragement, they will be able to perform most of the building tasks. Volunteers may have acquired a variety of skills by doing maintenance and repairs on their own homes.

The volunteer coordinator keeps the master schedule and assigns people to all the different tasks needed to plan and build the house. The skills inventory on the volunteer application will help assess the skill levels and interest of volunteers and will help in assigning people to committees and tasks. It also will help ensure that you have ample skilled workers available for each step of construction. The coordinator should send out reminders and/or post the work schedule in the newsletter or on a bulletin board so volunteers are clear about what they are to do and when they are supposed to do it.

This person must keep accurate records of who is working on the site each day. This is essential for recognition and for insurance purposes. The registrar also directs workers to the proper person for job assignments.

The Chaplain makes sure someone offers devotion on the construction site at the beginning of each workday.

This committee needs enthusiastic people who can keep something new and exciting happening all the time to draw attention to the Habitat project. Always keeping the congregation updated on the project.

This committee works with the project coordinator to plan and organize meals, snacks and drinks and to ensure that food is at the site when needed.

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