Junction City/Harrisburg/Monroe Habitat for Humanity wins Design Award

I'm thrilled to let you know that our affiliate is one of 13 U.S. Habitat for Humanity affiliates to win a 2020 U.S. Habitat House Design Contest! Competing against more than 100 entries, we won the category of "Best Construction Partnership," for outstanding demonstration of connecting with other organizations to build homes and community. The award comes with a grant award of $2,000, which will be used to continue our homebuilding mission!

Junction City/Harrisburg/Monroe Habitat for Humanity encourages trades-based education. We've developed a partnership with the Junction City High School Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructor. For the past three years, the students in this class have built the bathroom vanities and garage cabinets for our homes.

The local National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) have taken a starring role in our annual Women Build events. Balanced Electric Inc., a local woman-owned and -operated company and NAIWIC member, has taken a lead role in our Women Build events. In 2019, we had 50 women on site, cutting studs for, constructing, squaring, sheathing, and standing the exterior walls. Balanced Electric ran a "Wiring Workshop" during the event, demystifying household electrical wiring.

Additionally, our affiliate and construction team work with the Local 280 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). We are blessed to have this group working on site. The local brings instructors and students to our site and they complete the rough wiring of our houses in a day. The instructors have shared with us that having the ability to expose the apprentices and journeymen to a real-world residential situation is a valuable part of their learning experience.

 Finally, I want to personally thank our construction volunteers for putting as much effort as they do into our mission. What they do makes a difference in building a future for our families and our community. Our volunteers and staff are the backbone of helping make the world a better place and I can't put into words how appreciative and proud I am to work with all of them!
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We have accomplished great things and there will be many more to come!

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