Ladies: Sharpen your construction skills

A small city in Michigan holds a large opportunity for women volunteers who want Habitat for Humanity construction leadership training.

Habitat for Humanity International’s Women Build department is hosting a weeklong Construction Leadership Training session Oct. 5-11 in Monroe, Mich. The goal of the week is to help develop semi-skilled women volunteers into effective crew and house leaders with improved construction management and leadership skills.

“When you come to the training as a good construction site volunteer, you will come out a crew leader. When you come as a crew leader, you will come out of the training as a house leader,” says Terry Gaar, Training and Outreach Specialist with HFHI.

The weeklong training will take place at Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County. The majority of the week will be spent at a Habitat home construction site doing hands-on work after morning training sessions. In addition to an intensive construction skills review and on-site building, other training topics include safety, volunteer management and energy-efficient building.

Lodging facilities are available close to the build site as low for as $20 a night. Monroe is conveniently located 12 miles from the Detroit airport and less then 45 minutes from major highways.

Women interested in volunteering are welcome to register for the weeklong $225 course through the Women Build department. The fee includes all training, on-site building, training resources, safety materials, guest speakers, lunches, snacks and drinks. Scholarships are being offered to women that complete the training. Scholarship recipients must be Michigan residents.

To register, contact Terry Gaar at (800) 422-4828, ext. 7520, or tgaar@habitat.org. Registration is a first-come, first-serve basis.

An HFHI program, Women Build trains women to make a difference by building homes and communities. Thousands of houses have been built by women crews around the world. Each year hundreds of homes are added as affiliates, donors and sponsors discover the impact of women volunteers and their resources.