Besides working on home construction, people volunteer with us in four general areas:

1. hospitality for construction volunteers
2. office work
3. special events
4. committees

In addition, people volunteer at the Habitat Hand-Me-Ups store, our thrift store that helps pay for the construction of Habitat homes in Durham and Orange counties.

More information about each of these areas is below, but if you would like to share your talents with us in a way not listed here, please let us know! Can you help us update the website? Be a Spanish translator at one of our events, or translate the website into Spanish? Take photos of volunteers? Make lunch for construction volunteers? Help create a PowerPoint presentation or other marketing materials? Other ideas??

Hospitality for Construction Volunteers

We need hospitality volunteers to set up sign-in materials and refreshments at construction sites for construction volunteers, greet volunteers and help them sign in for their shifts, take photographs of volunteers at work, and/or store hospitality materials once volunteers have finished working for the day. The exact tasks involved would depend on the exact shifts that you volunteered. Hospitality volunteers are welcome (but not required) to make snacks (such as cookies) for construction volunteers.

Hospitality volunteers must either:

(A) be at least 18 years old or

(B) be at least 6 years old and be accompanied by another person who is at least 18 years old (either another volunteer or Habitat’s Volunteer Coordinator).

Currently, we are looking for people who can volunteer on a regular basis (at least one day per month, for at least one shift). The available shifts include:

7:30 -9am (on Wed, Thurs, Fri, or Saturday)
12:30 to 2 pm (on Saturday)
3:30 pm to 5 pm (on Saturday)

We most need volunteers for the 7:30=8:30am shift on Saturday. Some hospitality volunteers like to stay and work on construction after they have finished.

If possible, we would prefer that each volunteer plan to work on the same Thursday or Saturday of each month (such as the 1st Saturday of each month). However, those volunteers who cannot work on such a regular basis are welcome to sign up in advance to work on individual days

To volunteer with hospitality, please contact Patt Hatcher, Volunteer Coordinator, at 682-0516, extension 101, or e-mail .

Office Work and Community Service

Office Work

We need volunteers to help in our office by answering the telephone, replying to voicemail messages and emails from people who would like to volunteer with us, and handling occasional clerical tasks, such as data entry or mailing. Office volunteers must be at least 14 years old.

We provide training, as needed, in how to answer our multi-line phone, how to use our email system (Eudora), etc.

Currently, we are looking for people who can volunteer in our office on a regular basis (either once a week or once every two weeks), on the same day and at the same time each time, for at least two hours at a time, sometime between 9 am and 5 pm, Monday through Friday. Please be comfortable with simple computer work, such as data entry (we will provide training!).

If you would like to volunteer in our office, please contact Patt Hatcher, Volunteer Coordinator, at 682-0516, extension 101, or e-mail .

Community Service

People sometimes perform required community service by working in our office. (For more about working in our office, see above.)

If you would like to perform community service with us, please contact Patt Hatcher, Volunteer Coordinator, at 682-0516, extension 101, or e-mail  and answer the following questions:

1. Is the community service ordered by the court, required by a school, or required by your landlord?

2. If it was ordered by the court, what was the nature of the infraction?

3. How many hours do you need to do? By when do you have to do them?

Special Events

As a special events volunteer, you could help in different ways during different events.

At various times during the year, Habitat hosts one-time and annual events, such as bike rides or other fundraising events. The exact tasks involved in volunteering with a special event depend on the particular nature of the event in question. Generally speaking, however, we can use help before, during, and in some cases, after an event; and the work that is done before the event itself may take place over a span of days, weeks, or even months.

Special events volunteers must be at least 6 years old, and some tasks (such as directing traffic) are limited to older volunteers.  

Here are some examples of how you might help with special events...

On May 2, 2006, we will need volunteers to work on our annual  breakfast with more than 400 friends and family of Habitat. Tasks will include: helping to plan the event, decorating, greeting people, and/or serving refreshments.

In June 2006, we will have a Builders Blitz. Volunteers from different construction companies will build several houses in five days. You can set up tables, chairs, and refreshments for construction volunteers; serve meals and bottles of water; and take photographs.

In October 2006, we will have a Halloween 100 Benefit Bike Ride. You could bake cookies for the cyclists, hand out food to the cyclists, or cheer for the cyclists as they get to the finish line.

In addition, you could sing with Habitat Harmony, a diverse choir that performs occasionally at special events. And you could attend events to raise money for Habitat… and spread the word about them to other people, too!

If you would like to volunteer with such special events, please contact Roxanne Hall, Development Coordinator, at 682-0516, extension 113, or rhall@durhamhabitat.org.

We at Habitat also take part in community events, for example, by having a booth at a fair or an exposition every now and then. If you would like to help with such  community events, please contact Mary Brown, Family Services Director, at 682-0516, extension 102, or mbrown@durhamhabitat.org.

Committees

Habitat has a number of committees that meet on either a monthly basis or on an occasional basis. Some of these committees would like volunteers to serve as committee members.

For more information about volunteering with a Habitat committee, click here.

The Habitat Hand-Me-Ups Store

Located at 3710 Shannon Road (next to the post office) in Durham, the Hand-Me-Ups store is a non-profit affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International. It accepts donations of furniture, house wares, and some appliances, and then sells these items and donates the proceeds to Habitat of Durham and Habitat of Orange County. The Habitat affiliates use the money to buy materials to build new Habitat homes.

If you volunteer at the Hand-Me-Ups store, then you might...

Help customers find items
Arrange and display items to make them more attractive to customers
Unpack and sort donations
Answer the telephone -- take messages and give directions
Tabulate purchases using the cash register
Provide clerical or computer support
Help with advertising
Price merchandise with the help of the manager (after working at the store a while)
Test electrical items and appliances
Make small repairs on merchandise
Clean items and tidy the store
  
Currently, the Hand-Me-Ups Store is looking for people who could commit to at least two shifts a month. (Shifts are generally either 10 am to 1:30 pm OR 1:30 pm to 5 pm.)  However, they will also take people who can only volunteer once each month.

For further information about volunteering at the store, please call the store staff at (919) 403-8668 or visit their website, www.habitathandmeups.org.