Volunteer Opportunities For
Special builds
Santa Fe College
Alachua Habitat's partnership with Santa Fe College's Charles R. Perry Construction Institute facilitates training of construction professionals and assists in Alachua Habitat's mission to provide affordable housing in our community. Each Santa Fe house is built at the college in collaboration with students and apprentices, the Student Builders Association, Alachua Habitat volunteers, and instructors from the Builders Association of North Central Florida (BANCF) Apprenticeship Program. Home construction at the college gives the students hands-on experience in their Construction Management Techniques I and II courses as part of the established curriculum.
The Santa Fe houses are built in two sections and each section is then transported to the home site separately. After the two sections of the house are in place, volunteers add a front porch, back porch, driveway, and landscaping and address any other issues for final completion.
Interfaith build
A celebration of faith partnerships - We can't wait to build with you!
Habitat's mission involves building communities as well as homes. Habitat's interfaith initiative offers the opportunity to extend a hand to our neighbors of other faiths, and to work together to build safe, affordable housing for local families. Our interfaith builds are funded and built by members of local faith communities. Aside from new homes built, the positive and meaningful interaction among members of different religions encourages mutual trust, inspires hope, and ensures the sustainability of interfaith collaboration.
How can your faith congregation help?
Donate
Make a donation! Donations to purchase materials for the house are needed prior to the start of construction and funds are always needed to help cover the actual building costs of the houses. Contact our Executive Director, Stevie Doyle, at sdoyle@alachuahabitat.org for information about how your congregation can become an interfaith partner.
Volunteer
Your congregation can organize a group of volunteers for one or more build days. No experience is necessary! Our construction team teaches you everything you need to know on the build site. Contact our Volunteer Services Manager, Jenna Rowland, at jrowland@alachuahabitat.org for details.
Provide lunches
We are always looking for groups to sponsor or provide lunch for our construction volunteers, typically for between 10-15 people. If your congregation is interested in providing, sponsoring, and/or delivering lunches for volunteers at a build site, contact our Volunteer Services Manager at jrowland@alachuahabitat.org for more information.
Outreach
Tell your missions and outreach committees, congregation leaders, and fellow congregants about this unique opportunity!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can see our build site safety manual here.
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No! Our site supervisors will walk you through everything on-site.
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Yes, lunch is provided at all of our jobsites. We have vegetarian options available. If you have other dietary restrictions, please reach out to our Volunteer coordinator, Jenna Rowland, at jrowland@alachuahabitat.org.
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All registered volunteers will receive the site address the week of their scheduled build. All of our current sites are located within Gainesville within a 20-minute drive of the University of Florida.
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Yes, volunteers must stay from 8:30am to 2:30pm for safety reasons.
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Volunteers should wear clothing that they don't mind getting dirty and should wear shoes that enclose the toe/heel and that have a sole similar to that of tennis shoes/hiking boots.
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Yes, we have porta-potties on all of our sites for our volunteers to use.
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We monitor the weather leading up to all of our volunteer events. The build may be cancelled if weather poses a potential safety risk or if it will impede construction progress on the site. Occasionally, this means a cancellation on the morning of the event. If it is scheduled to rain, some sites may still be able to host volunteers if the work for the day is inside the house, depending on its state in the construction process. Volunteers will be notified via email if the build is cancelled.