UofT Habitat for Humanity Campaign
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In today's world, poverty is a grievous issue affecting people's livelihood. Poverty can mercilessly take away children's hopes and dreams. In Ontario, 129,000 families are waiting up to 20 years for affordable housing based on income. Many people feel the desire to help, but doubt the difference they can make. As UofT students/staff/alumni, we can change the life of a child and his/her family by participating in the UofT Habitat for Humanity Campaign.
Housing is a fundamental human right, and everyone deserves a roof over their heads. However, this does not mean we believe that houses should be given away for free. Habitat for Humanity does not provide hand-outs, but they provide a hand-up. The homes are not given away for free. The member family must still pay a mortgage, but the mortgage is set at an affordable rate (based on their income). Families must also commit to a certain number of community service hours.
The objectives of the UofT Habitat for Humanity Campaign are
1. Fundraise $80,000 for a house for a low-income family in Toronto - a "UofT Sponsored home"
2. Send students/staff/alumni to the construction site to help build this "UofT Sponsored home" through Habitat for Humanity
The objectives of Eyes Of Hope are
1. Leadership Development
2. Community Involvement (helping children, homeless program, providing affordable housing (Habitat for Humanity)
3. Having Fun
The Habitat for Humanity Campaign is not only about helping a family in need. This is also about developing personal teamwork and leadership skills, about meeting new people and making new friends, about learning new skills and experiencing new things, and about taking the first step towards being a global citizen.
Link to fundraising website: eyesofhope.skule.ca/donate
Facebook group: "Eyes Of Hope - University of Toronto"
E-mail: eyesofhope@eyesofhope.skule.ca
Mailing list: eyesofhope.skule.ca/mailinglist |
Habitat for Humanity Build Events - learn to build a house, and then build it!
1. Learn awesome new skills - learn to build a house!
A Habitat for Humaity build event is a unique opportunity to gain first hand experience on how to build an actual house! You will be at a real construction site with real professional leaders to teach you exactly how to build a home and then you will get an opportunity to do it first hand with close supervision and support! NO prior experience is needed because each group will have 4-6 volunteers so the crew leader will be able to closely help you out one on one.
The task that you will perform and the skills that you will learn depends on the phase of construction so it will vary. A few examples are given:
June 15, 2009 build event: Learn to erect the structural component of an interior wall!
We learned how to select the wood, find out what the "crown" of the wood is, how to properly measure and cut the wood, how to frame and nail the way, how to erect and secure the wall in place, and how to make the frame for the door! We also learned a lot of little timbits such as why a plastic barrier is placed at the top of the wall, and why drywall is placed in between the interior wall and exterior wall. After being explained how to make a wall, our crew leader helped us build the washroom walls.
November 1, 2008 build event: Learn to put up the dry wall of an interior wall!
We learned what the dry wall is, why it is used and how it is used. Our crew leader explained to us how to properly measure, cut and screw on the dry wall onto the structural component of an interior wall. After a day's work and helpful guidance from our crew leader, we managed to put up the bedroom drywalls!
August 5, 2008 build event: Learn to finish and paint the wall!
What is the proper way to paint? Should you paint in the direction parallel to the window or perpendicular to the window? How do you fix imperfections in a wall such as an accidental hole created during construction so that after you paint it, it will be invisible? What are the different coatings you need to use to paint a wall? How many paint coatings do you need? Besides learning how to paint a home, we also learned how to make a temporary wooden scaffold so that we can paint a very tall ceiling! Our day's work includes building a temporary wooden scaffold and painting the first floor of the house
At previous build events, we also learned and built a roof, a small patio and much more.
2. Meet new people, make new friends, develop your teamwork/leadership skills
You will normally be put into groups of 5-6 and you will be given a challenge that will require you to work with your team members to get the job done. This is the perfect opportunity to meet new people, develop leadership skills and make new friends! In addition, a FREE pizza lunch will be provided by Habitat to give you the opportunitity to meet even more like minded people who are committed to reducing poverty.
3. Have FUN while helping with a good cause!
Hey, this is a FUN social event. You get to actually learn how to build a house and then build it - an opportunity you don't get in any UofT course/program. And at the end of the day, you are personally showing leadership against the fight against poverty - the house will be occupied by a low-income family and it will be your two hands that helped built it!
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Erecting the the wall |
Putting up the dry wall |
Painting the wall/ceiling |
So How Can I help?
1. We need to get as many people involved as we can so sign up now and start fundraising! It's easy to send requests for support to your family and friends. Or if you'd prefer to make a donation yourself, you can make a direct donation to the campaign or sponsor an individual or a team. Also, get your friends involved! To get involved, visit eyesofhope.skule.ca/donate
2. Sign-up for a build-event. We will post available build events on our home page: eyesofhope.skule.ca
3. Join our committee to help organize build-events and fundraising-events
Anyone and everyone is welcome to help out. This is NOT an engineering only project but it is done in collaboration with engineering.
(Questions, comments? E-mail habitat.eyesofhope@gmail.com)
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Fundraising
You can set your personal goal on your own online fundraising page to encourage your friends, family, neighbours, colleagues, dentist – anyone you know - to give generously to this important cause. The closer you get to your personal goal, the closer the campaign is to reaching the goal of $80,000 to build one Habitat home for one local family in need of affordable housing.
You can sign up for an online fundraising account at eyesofhope.skule.ca/donate > Sign-In.
To reach your goal, you might consider the following tactics:
- use the template provided by the online fundraising tool under Fundraising > Get Sponsors to send email to your personal and professional contacts (including friends, family, co-workers, friends-of-friends, former colleagues, neighbours, your dentist or doctor, etc) telling them about your involvement with Habitat for Humanity Toronto and asking them to sponsor your volunteerism with a donation
- get yourself started by making the first donation yourself – all donations are tax-deductible
- fundraise as a team – join together with your peers and increase the number of potential sponsors through your joint efforts
- spread the word about your participation in the UofT campaign on social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Linked-In
- organize a fundraising event – garage sale, movie/karaoke night, bake sale, dance/skip/bike-a-thon, etc
- use the offline pledge form to collect cash, cheque or credit card donations in-person or by phone (click here to download pledge form <CLICK HERE>)
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Pictures / Media
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View our article of our August 2009 on the UofT Engineering Faculty Website: click < here>
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Information about Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity builds simple, decent, affordable homes in partnership with low-income families. Habitat provides a hand-up, not a hand-out: partner families purchase their home at cost, pay an interest-free mortgage, and earn their home through 500 hours of ‘sweat equity’. Did you know that the revenue from Habitat Toronto’s three ReStores covers all of our administrative and fundraising costs? Habitat ReStores sell quality new and used donated building materials. This means that every dollar you raise or give as part of the University of Toronto Campaign will go directly to building a Habitat home. For more information about Habitat, please visit www.torontohabitat.on.ca.
We support Habitat for Humanity because we know 100% of our donations will go towards building homes. We also know that Habitat for Humanity is about giving a hand-up, not a hand-out. Families still have to pay a mortgage, but their mortgage is based on their income, and the homes are not given away for free. |
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