Volunteer Information

Volunteer Information

Thanks for your willingness to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity of Schenectady County (HFHSC) is leading building coalitions to unleash and mobilize revitalization forces in Schenectady County’s most distressed neighborhoods. Opportunities abound for us to change whole communities by replacing sub-standard housing with owner-occupied homes. We have been building and rehabilitating homes in Schenectady since 1992.

How the volunteers enhance and extend the services of our program:

HFHSC requires a lot of talent to plan and lead the projects. Its standing committees include Board of Directors, Operations Council, and Building Committee, totaling approx 40 people. There are many areas where volunteers could help. These include: financial management, family relations, construction management, fund-raising, site selection, volunteer scheduling, public relations, church relations and personnel training. Volunteers provide most of the labor, and individual and corporate donors provide money and materials to build Habitat houses. Partner families themselves invest hundreds of hours of labor - "sweat equity" - into building their homes and the homes of others. As you can imagine, there are many different kinds of construction tasks involved and we can use volunteers with a wide range of ability. Volunteers are divided into several groups; professional, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. We have an active list of regular group and individual volunteers, women-build and corporate volunteer groups, and we welcome write-in volunteers.

When and how you can volunteer to work on the Habitat houses:

In 2005, we are now in an active construction phase, building a single family house at 319 Schenectady Street, Schenectady. Our workdays are Wednesday and Saturday, 8:00AM – 3:00PM. Inside work can be done most of the time but outside work is dependent on the weather. The number of volunteers that can be scheduled will be limited to the kinds of tasks planned for that day. No prior experience is necessary to get involved. All construction volunteers receive task-specific on-site safety instruction. Our insurance requires that volunteers must be 16 or older to work on construction. 14- 16 volunteers may work on exterior projects, painting and cleanup tasks. No one under 14 can work on the site

How to contact us:

Our web site, http://www.hfhscny.org/, provides details of our activities and has a special section devoted to “getting involved”. Our mailing address is: PO Box 9043, Schenectady, NY 12309. You can also leave a message on (518) 395-3412, or send us an email at habitat@hfhscny.org

What happens after you contact us?

After you contact us with your availability, our volunteer coordinator will try to match you with our construction schedule, identify available dates most suitable to your needs, and send you an email to explain the task on the specified date and request you to confirm your availability. Upon your confirmation, we will send you more specific details, as well as “rules to build by” flyer which has general info for working at site. The Volunteer Coordinator will schedule groups and individual volunteers as needed and will inform the Group leaders accordingly. Volunteers will be scheduled as many times as they desire as long as there is work to do.

When you arrive at the Construction Site:

ALL volunteers are scheduled for specific workdays at a specific site. ALL VOLUNTEERS MUST SIGN IN and OUT each time they work on the site. A sign-in sheet will be provided at each site for this purpose.

The site supervisor will assign volunteers to tasks according to their skill level. It may be that you will learn a task while working under the supervision of a more skilled volunteer. If you are uncomfortable with your assigned task, speak to the supervisor and you will be assigned something else.

This is a real construction site and all volunteers are required to wear clothing appropriate for those tasks and the weather. For example: sturdy shoes with good soles (no tennis shoes or sandals are allowed on the site), long trousers, work gloves or garden-style gloves and a hat in hot sunny weather. Long sleeves and safety glasses are advised if you are working with insulation or sheet-rock. Dust masks will be provided when necessary.

Many volunteers bring some hand tools: hammer, tape measure, etc but most of the tools you need will be provided. Only skilled volunteers may use power tools. Working on ladders or scaffolds can be dangerous and utmost caution must be observed. DO NOT accept this task if you are uncomfortable working on ladders. There are plenty of other tasks you can do.

Cold bottled water is always available on the site. Local groups or churches may provide a lunch. You will be notified if you need to bring a lunch. You may bring additional drinks and snacks if desired.