Building homes and community with sweat-equity and compassion
For more than 40 years, Habitat for Humanity of Colorado has served thousands of families throughout the state, based on the idea that everyone deserves a simple, durable place to live in dignity and safety, and that decent housing in decent communities should be a matter of conscience and action for everyone.
A group of caring volunteers created Habitat for Humanity of Colorado in 1992. The organization’s purpose is to build the capacity of the 25 Habitat affiliates serving 45 Colorado communities by providing services including: funding and financing, state-level advocacy, training and technical assistance and disaster response coordination. Worldwide, Habitat for Humanity has served more than 1 million families, completing the construction or repair of a home at the rate of every 4 minutes.
“Habitat for Humanity promotes a housing continuum that encourages social and economic mobility through the creation of affordable housing across Colorado,” says Tamara Foglio, director of development for Habitat for Humanity of Colorado (a Colorado Builder community partner).
“With over 3,550 families served in our Colorado communities we are committed to building strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter,” Foglio says. “In all of our work, we seek to put shelter on hearts and minds in such powerful ways that poverty housing becomes socially and politically unacceptable.”
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According to their website, “Building is at the center of all we do—beginning with the building of relationships and finishing with the building of communities. But it’s the in-between where we find the potential to build so much more. We build dignity, self-esteem and hope for our homeowners. We build confidence, careers and collaborative environments for each other. And we build stable communities to ensure future generations prosper and thrive.”
“Because Habitat homeowners spend hundreds of hours working on their home and those of their neighbors, as part of the program, they are more familiar than anyone with the new place they will call home,” Foglio says. “They literally have built their dream. I will let the words of one such homeowner speak to this question: ‘Aside from being able to actually have a house of my own and achieving my dream to raise my son in the place I grew up, I now have so much hope for the future. I have also gained so much confidence in myself. I now see that I am worthy of this blessing. I have worked so hard to make this dream a reality.’”