Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build Empowers Women to Build the Future
By meg hale brunton
Photo credit: Asheville Habitat For Humanity
In 1994, Habitat for Humanity International created a program called Women Build with the goal of recruiting, educating and nurturing women to build – and advocate for – simple, decent, and affordable housing in their communities. For this program, women do all the volunteer work, all the building, and raise all the funding for the houses they build.
While Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity’s Development Officer Zoe Trout has a variety of duties in her role, Women Build is among her favorite projects. Since construction is often a male-dominated field, Zoe says she enjoys that Women Build gives women the opportunity to not only contribute to their community, but also to learn new skills they might otherwise have been intimidated by previously. “It’s hands down our most popular project because it speaks to so many people,” she states. “The whole purpose of Women Build is empowering women, encouraging them to build houses, and enabling them to impact the lives of their children.”
Though built with a budget in mind, all Habitat homes are constructed with the utmost standards of quality, including new materials and green products. “They’re beautiful homes. There’s a lot of pride we take in our homes. They are really well-made,” Zoe says. While they sometimes build a single house in a pre-existing neighborhood, she finds that building an entire development of Habitat homes often works even better. “It is a lot more efficient to build a whole neighborhood, and we find it’s better for our homeowners because they all go through their classes together, they know each other, and then, they move into a neighborhood and have that community already built in.”
As part of her job, Zoe visits the job site a couple of times a month to provide support to volunteers, donors, and the homeowners. “Nothing compares to seeing a family move into their new home. It gets me everytime. Every single time I see them get that key and walk through their front door, I just cry,” she admits. Zoe also makes it a point to clarify that the homeowner buys the house they build and pays an affordable mortgage, stating that it’s not a hand out, but more like a hand up. They contribute 200 hours of “sweat equity” into the building of their home and take homebuyer education courses.
Among the Women Build core volunteers, there is an elite group of women known as the WomBats (Women Build Advocacy Team). This dynamo team of 12-15 ladies have been helping Women Build to be successful for years by fundraising, promoting, and recruiting volunteers. They also host a free fundraiser every summer complete with live music called Rock the House. The first one was held in 2017 and it was such a success, they opted to make it an annual event.
One WomBAT, Peggy Crowe, has been volunteering with Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity for a decade. “We create awareness and raise funds to go toward our Women Build house every year,” she says of the WomBATs, adding that being a Habitat volunteer is, “like being forever in the glow of new love.” Peggy remembers a particularly moving experience on a site in which one volunteer admitted she was terrified of heights as well as construction. During her day working on the house, she conquered both fears, leaving the volunteer to wonder what else she was truly capable of.
Peggy feels that women don’t often have something tangible to show for their efforts in their everyday lives. “No matter what they worked on that day it will always be an essential, visible gift to a family that now has a home that had only existed in their dreams,” Peggy says of the work the volunteers do on a Habitat house. She adds that it is a great way for local women to meet and connect. “Women have a unique synchronicity and instinctively collaborate to help each other where needed. They might not have known each other in the morning, but by the end of the day, they leave as new friends who have bonded over this shared experience.”
Asheville Area Habitat recently completed their 18th Women Build house in Buncombe County, with the 19th one scheduled to be finished in June. Zoe points out that they always need volunteers, since volunteer labor is a key factor in Habitat for Humanity’s model to keep the cost of the house down. “Our construction supervisors are experts at leading volunteers of all ages, stages and skill levels. We have a job for everybody. If you can hold a paint brush, you can volunteer,” she explains, adding that anyone over the age of 16 can sign up. “I think the most satisfying part of my job is that I get to connect people in our community to our organization that is doing meaningful work.”
For more information on Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity, or to volunteer today, visit their website: www.ashevillehabitat.org
Carolina Spark Magazine is proud to partner with Asheville Area Habitat’s Women Build program by donating a portion of its advertising sales for this issue to their cause.
