Women help build homes for families
Habitat for Humanity site in Auburn Bay
A single mother with five children and a single father with two daughters will now each have homes to call their own thanks to a new project by Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta.
The formal announcement was made at the Auburn Bay work site in southeast Calgary during Women Build Week.
Women Build is an international program under the Habitat banner that brings together women to change the lives of those in their community.
Calgary’s fourth Women Build Week attracted more than 200 women to swing hammers and help with framing the two-storey, semi-detached duplex.
Each side will be about 1,100-square feet with three bedrooms and are anticipated to be certified Platinum through the Builtgreen Canada Program to provide long-term savings to the families.
Jodi Caskey, 40, will share the twostorey home with Carson, 19, Joshua, 11, Matthew, 8, and Grace, 7. Her eldest, Jeremy-colton, 21, now lives on his own.
“We are so excited,” Caskey says of receiving the home.
“I’m just really honoured that our family has been chosen by Habitat to receive a home. It’s so much more than a home to us.
“This is an amazing lesson for my children about community and strength and building together toward a dream. It’s a beautiful lesson my children are learning.”
Caskey is thrilled that her new home will be accessible for her daughter, who uses a wheelchair and has congenital muscular dystrophy, hearing loss, hip dysplasia, developmental delays and a life-threatening heart condition.
Grace will have her own room with a proper-size bed, the two younger boys will share and the eldest will finally have a real bedroom with walls and a door.
The home means not only extra room, but more family time for Caskey, who works for a non-profit advocating for women who have fetal alcohol syndrome and their children.
“This will be the first time that I’ll only have to work one job,” says Caskey, who has often held two full-time jobs to support her family.
Stewart Barrett, a yard foreman for a building supply company, is a single parent with two daughters, Stephanie, 12, and Natalee, 10.
Having been brought up in an itinerant and broken home, he is seeking the stability of home ownership and a good neighbourhood for his daughters to grow up in.
The girls will now each have a bedroom for themselves. Being able to move out of rental accommodation means the girls will also finally be able to have a puppy.
Habitat for Humanity homes are built by volunteers, and Women Build is an opportunity for women to work together. “It’s really about trying to get women to come out and try a non-traditional volunteer capacity,” says Leslie Tamagi, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta.
“It’s really quite amazing. By the end of the day, you’re having to wrangle the power saw out of their hands. It’s a really empowering experience.”
Since 2002, Women Build presenting sponsor Burnet, Duckworth and Palmer LLP has contributed almost $1 million toward building affordable housing through Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta.
“Community involvement is a keystone of our corporate culture and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to help construct a home for a deserving Calgary family,” says Annette Lambert, partner at Burnet, Duckworth and Palmer LLP.
Also sponsoring the week were the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, Brookfield Properties, Lafarge and Genworth Canada —Meaning of Home.
Sponsors were on-site during Women Build, including a group from Brookfield.
“We are very proud to be supporting Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta again this year,” says Wendy Jabusch, vice-president of Calgary housing for Brookfield Homes. “As a homebuilder, we know how important a home is to a family. We wanted to take part in the Women Build initiative not only to lend our expertise in home building, but to also promote and advocate for women who are working in the industry.”