Habitat for Humanity Buffalo is busy hosting its third annual Women Build Week. This year's project list includes renovating one older house and constructing two new homes. As WBFO's Chris Caya reports dozens of women are volunteering their time and their talent.
Work is underway on three affordable homes at the same time near the corner of Winslow Avenue and Brooklyn Street - a few blocks from East Ferry and Jefferson. Habitat Buffalo Executive Director Teresa Bianchi says building in clusters makes good business sense.
"If you have all your materials in one place it's easy and more efficient to build. But also part of our program is the sweat equity component. All our Habitat homeowners have to contribute 400 hours of sweat equity. So if they're helping each other build their homes before they move in, once they move in they're already community. They're already taking care of each other, their kids, their belongings, and it just makes for a stronger community," Bianchi said.
Women Build Week Team Captain Jody Galvin is a partner at Hodgson Russ. This is her second year taking part - and Galvin says it's an amazing experience.
"I would absolutely recommend that people who are interested in volunteering just get involved. It's the easiest thing to do by registering through Habitat's website. And, once you get here, if you have no experience whatsoever the construction professionals on site take care of you and teach you how to do things. So no experience is necessary. And I would say, grab a group of friends and sign up for a day and see if you like it," Galvin said.
Habitat builds year-round. So Bianchi says, they can always use help. And she says there's a variety of opportunities.
