Since its founding in Sept. 1991, Indian River Habitat for Humanity (IRHFH) has built more than 300 homes locally and has assisted hundreds of other families here and abroad through its various programs. It has also been chosen six times by Habitat for Humanity International to receive the esteemed Affiliate of the Year Award.
So it should come as no surprise that it was recently selected as one of only eight affiliates nationwide to receive an Argosy Foundation grant to launch The Body of Faith, an interfaith initiative seeking to move more families out of poverty through a unified effort.
“Habitat for Humanity has been in existence since 1976, founded on Christian principals,” explains Andy Bowler, IRHFH executive director.
“However, we realize that Christians aren’t the only ones who have got a desire to help those in need of simple, decent housing. We’re not going to convert someone from one faith to another; that’s not our purpose. But we have come to realize that besides the Christian faith, there are others that equally desire to help the poor and those that are downtrodden; in our case, to help those that are in need of housing.”
“There’s so much work that needs to be done,” adds LaKisha Erwin, Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative Manager. “So if we can come together and support this common need, we can get more work done and we can serve more families – together.”
The month-long Body of Faith project is taking a holistic approach through a series of interfaith activities involving local secular and non-secular groups.
“Every part of the body represents an activity that parallels to what we’re doing. So the ‘heart’ represents the prayer,” Erwin explains of last week’s Interfaith Prayer Circle, which met to launch the initiative by praying together on Sept. 11.
For the “eyes,” the project is posting daily interfaith inspirations related to unity on the Habitat website and Facebook page. The third aspect is the “hands,” which relates to two Interfaith Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) projects, repairing homes in Fellsmere. The first took place last Saturday and another will occur on Sept. 28. Also last Saturday, volunteers raised the walls on a new home in Habitat’s Grace Meadows community in Fellsmere.
The “back” comes into play with the Sept. 27 Interfaith ReStore Volunteer Day, which invites people to help out at the Home Center ReStore, which supports the mission.
“We will have just celebrated our ninth anniversary of the store,” says Bowler. “Nine years, $9 million dollars. Not bad. When we first started, people were wondering whether this would fly or not, because there’s lots of thrift stores here in town, but it’s taken off.”
Rather than clothing, the ReStore primarily sells items such as furniture, appliances and building supplies. In addition to its uniqueness, Bowler credits the success to support from donors and local builders.
An Interfaith Meal and Interfaith Walk, both on Oct. 3 at Kashi Interfaith Spiritual Community, will represent the “stomach” and “feet,” with lunch and a walk through their gardens. And for the “ears” an Interfaith Panel Discussion on Poverty and Housing will be held Oct. 7 at Indian River State College.
“We’re sort of piggy-backing on the end of the Harvest Food and Outreach Symposium on Poverty and Hunger; ours is directly after,” says Bowler. “We’re hoping that this is going to be an ongoing event with an annual focus around about the same time frame.”
The closing activity on Oct. 11 will involve planting a tree on the Habitat campus, with another tree added each year. Also on the drawing board is an Interfaith Council of interfaith leaders and lay members to be involved on an ongoing basis.
“Obviously we’re introducing a lot of people to Habitat, maybe for the first time through this interfaith activity. We’re hoping that they get ‘habititis’ – and it’s incurable once you’re got it.
“And contagious,” quips Erwin.
“This is Year One; hopefully Year Two will be bigger and better, and 10 years from now they’re going to have a continuing presence and ongoing initiatives. It might be through our activities at Habitat or it might be something spawned off,” says Bowler.
“We’re not doing this solely as our own; we’re just acting as the catalyst to get the thing rolling. We’re very prominent in this community as a housing leader for affordable housing, but we don’t want to be the only ones. We want to try and bring in as many as possible to meet the need.”
Sadly, the need has grown exponentially over the last 10 years, with now more than double the number of homeless people and an increase from 10,500 to 20,150 in the number of people living below the poverty line.
“It’s why we are in existence here and why we want to bring others into the cause,” says Bowler. “I’m afraid it’s not going away.”
Bowler and Erwin have been associated with Habitat for almost the same amount of time; he was hired 14 years ago, shortly before Erwin became a Habitat homeowner.
“We started her house in September, 2001, and it rained every Saturday that month. I can remember that house very vividly,” Bowler says, adding that his wife had been Erwin’s family support partner.
“She’s a local resident, and that’s why she’s done such a terrific job here in the Gifford community setting up this Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. She ran a very successful Rock the Block Around the Clock event last March, when we had all the college kids coming in during spring break. Of course we’ve got plans for that again next year.”
“We served 40 families in just that one month; this year our goal is 50 families,” adds Erwin, noting those homes fell into the repair category.
Erwin is one of many Habitat success stories, entering the program at age 18 as a single mother while still in high school. She has since gone on to receive Bachelor’s degrees in both Business Management and Biblical Studies, and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Mental Health Counseling. Along the way she also met and married a man with an unusual first name.
“I prayed to marry someone famous and the Lord gave me Famous Erwin; my husband is famous!” laughs Erwin.
“Habitat did so much for me; they didn’t just give me a house. They gave me stability, a vision and exposure – and a job. I get to go back and speak to other individuals and families in situations similar to mine, and give back to the community who gave so much to me. And this is the beginning.”
As of June 30, the close of its 2014 Fiscal Year, Indian River Habitat for Humanity served 86 local families, with 10 families moving into new homes, 16 moving into rehabilitated homes, and 60 families assisted through NRI repair efforts.
For details or to register for any of the Interfaith Activities, visit www.irchabitat.org.