In 2009, participants in Skills for Life I spent six months working on a new construction Habitat home on Dewitt Street. The home was dedicated last November. Habitat and Youth Continuum will begin Skills for Life II in July. In 2010 ten new participants will work on several new Habitat homes on Sylvan Avenue.

On Saturday, June 12, Habitat and Yale-New Haven Hospital held a groundbreaking for two new homes on Sylvan Avenue being sponsored by YNHH. YNHH and its Medical Staff sponsored their first Habitat home, 15 Wilson Street, in 2009. The groundbreaking was attended by Habitat staff, Board members, friends and supporters, YNHH administrators and staff, recent Habitat homebuyers and Habitat’s newest family Dorjee Wangdak, his wife Tsering Choedak and their daughter Tenzin Loudon. Dorjee and his family are Tibetan and emigrated to the U.S. from south India. In 2008 they became American citizens.

Richard D’Aquila, COO and Executive Vice President of YNHH (top photo, second from left), was joined by Dr. Suzanne Lagarde (top photo, far left) and Dr. Michael Bennick (top photo, second from right), members of the Medical Staff, in extending best wishes from the hospital community and a promise that YNHH volunteers would again work side by side with the family to build the house. Recent Habitat homebuyers Robert Henderson (see article below) and Fred and Lavenita Smith, purchasers of 432 Huntington Street (to be dedicated in July) were on hand to share Dorjee and Tsering’s dream of becoming homeowners get underway. After the groundbreaking, the Smiths and their two children rolled up their sleeves and got to work, helping to put together part of the framing for the house.

Dorjee and his wife will spend the next six months putting in the required 400 hours of sweat equity working on their house and eventually the house next door. Family selection for that home is underway.

For photos of the groundbreaking, please click here.