ION Bank Community Awards Program: Vote for Community Build Sleeping Giant Build

Our community build Sleeping Giant Build is participating in ION Bank’s Community Awards Program! The Community Awards Program gives each Ion Bank customer the opportunity to vote for their favorite non-profit organization to help the Ion Bank Foundation give away $60,000. Enrolled non-profits will receive a donation of $25 from the Ion Bank Foundation for every vote for their organization. Funds raised for Sleeping Giant Build will go toward the construction of their 12th home.

It’s simple – vote for Sleeping Giant Build in one click! Voting will take place from February 1 through March 31, 2020. You must be an Ion Bank customer to vote. One vote per customer, however, for accounts with multiple owners, each owner may vote. Customers with multiple accounts may only vote once. Each customer can vote for only one organization. Thank you for your support!

House Party @ Olives and Oil to Support Sleeping Giant Build: September 18

Community build Sleeping Giant Build is fundraising for their 11th Habitat house!
To support them is easy, just join the crew at Olives and Oil in New Haven for dinner on September 18 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. In addition to great food, sweet desserts, and bubbly beverages, attendees have a chance to play board games, enter raffles, and to learn more about volunteering.
10% of all food purchases will be donated to Sleeping Giant Build so check out the menu and plan for dinner out!
Parking will be available in the garages on Temple Street and Crown Street. Please bring in your ticket and a member of the Olives and Oil staff will validate it for you.

Celebration of 387 Lenox Street, New Haven: May 22 at 3:30 p.m.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven invites the community to celebrate the completion of the recently restored house at 387 Lenox Street in New Haven, the home of the Sanchez family. The event will take place at the home in Fair Haven Heights on Wednesday, May 22 at 3:30 p.m.

The Greek Revival-style house, constructed in 1833, was carefully restored by Habitat’s staff, the Sanchez family, and hundreds of volunteers from the community. The restoration includes a high masonry basement, popular in nineteenth-century homes for use as oyster cellars, and a front entry way that fits the character of the home and surrounding neighborhood. Situated on the corner of Lenox and Clifton Streets, the house beautifully illustrates that the creation of affordable housing and the preservation on a historically significant building can go hand-in-hand.

Speakers at the dedications will include representatives from Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven, the City of New Haven, our community revitalization partner the Avangrid Foundation, and the New Haven Preservation Trust, which provided technical assistance and partial funding for the project. The Avangrid Foundation, the City of New Haven’s Community Development Block Grants, Eversource, and Habitat for Humanity community build Raise the Roof, were all instrumental in providing funding for this project.

Parking will be available on Clifton Street and the surrounding area, including at Dom Aitro Field in Fairmont Park (81 Clifton Street). Light refreshments will be served after the ceremony.

RSVPs to Allison Mangles (amangles@habitatgnh.org) are preferred.

The Great Give: May 1-2

Join us for 36 hours of giving to support Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven! This is the tenth year we will be participating in the event along with other non-profit organizations that serve the New Haven community. Gifts made between 8:00 a.m. on May 1 and 8:00 p.m. on May 2 will help us to earn monetary prizes and increase funds raised to support our home-building program. There is a special opportunity for housing organizations to earn an additional $2,000 between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. on May 2. The housing organization with the most unique donors during this time period will be named the winner. No gift is too small! Set your alarm and make sure to make your gift during the Great Give.

“Building Your Voice” Event to Benefit Habitat for Humanity: May 5

Spoken word comes to the Kate – come see and hear the inaugural presentation of acclaimed authors reading their own words in “Building Your Voice” to benefit one of our community builds, Raise The Roof. The event is sponsored by RJ Julia Booksellers of Madison, CT and will take place on Sunday, May 5 at 4:00 p.m.

This performance is hosted by WNPR Radio personality Chion Wolf and allows three diverse and powerful voices to express their art. Randi Minetor will read from her thriller Death in Glacier National Park. Padma Venkatraman reads from her story of courage The Bridge Home. Rebecca Coffey reads from her fascinating book Hysterical, Anna Freud’s Story.

There will be a chance to meet the authors and talk to them about lifetimes in writing, all for a great cause! Join us in the world of spoken word performances at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center. Click here to purchase tickets for this great event!

2018 Annual Appeal

Our Annual Appeal is going on now! Please consider making a gift this year to support our home building projects in New Haven. Through your generosity, we can partner with more families next year and continue building affordable housing in New Haven. You can see your gift in action in 2019 with our first project of the year on Peck Street in New Haven. Volunteering on the work site and attending the dedication at the completion of the project are great ways to see the benefit of your of your donation. To learn about one family’s journey to home ownership with Habitat please read our annual appeal letter. Thank you in advance for your support.

The Rivera Family in front of their new home.

Dedication of 55 Redfield Street, New Haven

You are invited to the dedication of the Hickman Family home! The dedication will take place on Saturday, October 27 at 3:30 p.m. at 55 Redfield Street in New Haven. We will ‘pass the hammer’ to our newest homeowner as we celebrate the completion of this project and the start of a new journey for this family.
Special thanks to Sleeping Giant Build for sponsoring this project and to all of the volunteers and donors who help further our mission of providing safe, affordable housing in the New Haven community.

Members of the Hickman Family are putting the final touches on the home’s landscaping. They are ready to move in!

Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven receives Neighborhood Stabilization and Revitalization Grant from the Avangrid Foundation

Avangrid Foundation, in partnership with local subsidiaries United Illuminating and Southern Connecticut Gas, has recognized Habitat for Humanity as a 2018-2019 Neighborhood Revitalization Partner. A generous grant of $20,000 has been awarded to continue the stabilization and revitalization of neighborhoods in New Haven. The grant will help to fund this work through 2019.

 

“We’re excited to partner with Avangrid Foundation and thankful for their support,” said Bill Casey, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven. “This partnership will help us to further our stabilization and revitalization efforts in the Hill and Fair Haven neighborhoods. We look forward to working alongside Avangrid Foundation and their partners in these communities.”

 

The Avangrid Foundation is committed to sustainable human and local development  in the communities in which our partners operate as an effort to reduce poverty and enrich the vitality of the places we call home,” said Director, Nicole Licata Grant. “Supporting affordable home ownership, neighborhood revitalization and deep community engagement are important tenants of that commitment both here in CT and across the country

 

Volunteers from Avangrid have already joined the efforts by helping at a recent project in the Hill neighborhood. These volunteers helped install kitchen cabinets and painted the interior of the home on Redfield Street that is scheduled to be completed this fall. This single family home joins many others homes completed in the Hill neighborhood.

 

United Illuminating, now a subsidiary of AVANGRID, was one of the earliest supporters of Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven. As far back as the late 1980s, the company began donating to the building program and sending teams of volunteers to the housing sites. We work together to improve the neighborhoods where we live and work.

About Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven

Founded in 1986, Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven is a non-profit organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty housing through the creation of homeownership opportunities for low-income, working families.  Habitat builds and rehabilitates homes in New Haven County with the goal of creating safe, affordable homes that add to the revitalization of city neighborhoods.  Habitat accomplishes its mission by partnering with individuals, religious and civic organizations, local businesses and corporations.  Habitat sells its homes to partner families at no-profit, via 25-year, 0%-interest mortgages.  For more information about Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven, visit their website at www.habitatgnh.org.

 

About Avangrid Foundation

The Avangrid Foundation is an independent organization that funds philanthropic investments primarily in areas where AVANGRID and its subsidiaries operate.  For more information, please visit the Avangrid Foundation section of our website: www.avangrid.com.

Volunteers Needed on October 6: Head of the Housatonic Regatta

We will once again be managing the parking at the Head of the Housatonic Regatta and collecting donations from all attendees to support our home building projects! The event takes place on Saturday, October 6 and there are three, 3-hour volunteer shifts beginning at 6:00 a.m. and ending at 3:00 p.m. Volunteers are needed to direct traffic, collect donations, and offer information to attendees. The parking takes place at 2 Corporate Drive in Shelton and the regatta takes place at Indian Well State Park, both in Shelton. Following their shift all volunteers are invited to take the shuttle bus to the regatta to see what all the excitement is about! This volunteer opportunity is appropriate for individuals and groups. All volunteers must be at least 16 years of age. To sign up now please log into VolunteerUp. For more information please contact Allison Mangles, Volunteer Coordinator, at amangles@habitatgnh.org or (203) 785-0794 ext. 110. We hope to see you at the regatta!

Volunteers collecting parking donations at the 2017 Head of the Housatonic Regatta.

Parking Lot Sales Dates Announced at the ReStore

Our last summer sale has been re-scheduled to Wednesday, August 15!

Through a generous donation from a local furniture chain we are planning to hold three parking lot sales at our ReStore this summer! New and gently used furniture will be unloaded from a tractor trailer right in the parking lot on each day and everything must go! The sales, which are weather dependent, are scheduled on  June 30, July 21, and August 9 (rescheduled to August 15) from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The ReStore, located at 286 South Colony Road, will be open for regular business on these days, too, so stop by to shop for everything from furniture, to lighting, to home decor and cabinetry. You never know what you will find but the selection is different every time!