Building Healthy Communities

This has been an exciting and busy week for Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), one of our national partners, as it celebrated World Habitat Day on Monday and the 27th annual Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Work Project with projects throughout the country that built, repaired and rehabilitated 86 homes.  HFHI and the Carters culminated the week in Minneapolis, with former Vice President Walter Mondale and Mayor R.T. Rybek all swinging hammers to help families in the Hawthorne neighborhood.

We were very excited to have the project in an area we at The Home Depot Foundation know well.  The Foundation has contributed $500,000 to the development of the Hawthorne Eco-Village neighborhood, which is being jointly developed by the City of Minneapolis, Project for Pride in Living (PPL) and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.  The Hawthorne Eco-Village is a unique, five-year, multi-phase project to revitalize a four block area that has seen high crime rates, too many vacant and abandoned homes and too little investment for a very long time.  The first time I visited the site, in fact, a neighbor asked me what was going on, saying she knew something was happening because the police had been patrolling and she hadn’t hear gunfire during the night.  With Mayor Rybak’s leadership, we made a commitment to partner with the City and local nonprofit organizations to create a safer, healthier and more economically vibrant community in the Hawthorne neighborhood.   Now, having had the spotlight of the City’s Building Inspection Department and Problem Property Unit, as well as the police department, trained on the area, enormous progress has been made. Crime is down, some homes have been renovated and sold while energy audits and retrofits have been conducted on others.  In addition to building new homes to meet LEED standards, work will also include installation of a solar panel on a high profile business, a tree nursery, rain gardens and a community garden.  The City is also considering installing a new light rail line to service the area.  Throughout our time working in Hawthorne we have been immensely appreciative of the vision Mayor Rybak has and his dedication to creating a more sustainable city.  In fact, we were so impressed with Minneapolis’ work to identify and implement sustainability principles that we recognized the city with one of our 2009 Awards of Excellence.  Learn more about the work and watch a video showing what’s going on in this half of the Twin Cities.

The homes built by President Carter, Mayor Rybak and Twin Cities Habitat this week are outstanding examples of how building healthy, efficient homes in sustainable neighborhoods can be a life-changer for families and cities alike.  The Hawthorne neighborhood is truly a demonstration that with a concentrated focus of resources and strong partnerships, transformation can occur in a relatively short period of time.   If you want to learn more about what’s going on in the neighborhood and what the neighbors are saying about it, the St. Paul Pioneer Press published a really informative article this week.

Congratulations to HFHI and the Hawthorne Eco-Village on a great week! (more…)

There’s finally a little nip in the air here in the South, and soon the leaves will start to show their gorgeous autumnal palette.  For me, that means football season, sweaters and fires for marshmellow roasting.  It’s also tree planting season and each year The Home Depot Foundation celebrates NeighborWoods Month with our outstanding nonprofit partner, the National Alliance for Community Trees (ACT).  Last year during NeighborWoods Month, ACT members organized over 700 volunteer events in 230 cities and engaged 24,000 volunteers to plant 36,000 trees.  That’s a lot of sweat and mulch, which resulted in healthier, safer neighborhoods through out the country.

I’ve written previously about the many economic benefits of trees, but I’d like to look at trees from a different vantage today and discuss the way trees impact our families and neighbors and the ways in which we interact with each other.  Sound strange?  I’m sure it does if you’ve not had the opportunity to think about the social and emotional benefits of trees.

I’ll give you some data points in a minute, but ask that you think about planting a tree, and specifically, think about a time that you may have volunteered with a group of others to plant trees, maybe in a park or at a school or along a sidewalk.  (If you haven’t had this experience, check out the calendar of events scheduled for this year’s NeighborWoods Month!)  First, I know, it’s hard work to dig a hole wide enough to let the roots spread and thrive.  But, second, didn’t you have some fun?  Wasn’t it rewarding to arrive at a place that might have needed a little TLC and to leave seeing it improved?  Didn’t you enjoy smelling the freshly-turned earth, maybe watching a kid squeal as a worm squirmed around?  Didn’t you leave having spent time with someone you enjoyed?  Now the real test:  if you have walked or driven by that location once or even a hundred times since that day, have you checked to see how “your” tree is doing?  I bet you have, and so has everyone else who joined you that day.  You didn’t spend your time just planting a tree, you helped build a community that you - and your tree - are a part of.

In fact, scientists have shown that people who live in neighborhoods with more green spaces have stronger social ties with their neighbors.  This means that they know more of their neighbors, have more visits with them are more likely to support each other and to share resources.  This, in turn, means that they are more likely to watch what is going on on their streets, step in if a problem occurs and defend their neighborhoods.  I guess it just follows, then, that there are fewer incidents of vandalism, graffiti and litter in a community with trees than in their more barren areas.  In fact, that extends to all crime: there are fewer violent crimes in greener areas.

For many people going for a walk calms them when they are upset or stressed.  That’s one of those things we just know, right?  Well, scientists have done studies and found that if you take a walk in a natural setting after a stressful situation, your blood pressure and heart rate will decline as will your feelings of fear, anger and aggression.  Office workers with a view of trees and nature from their desks find their jobs more satisfying, are less frustrated and report better over all health.   Even if you do get sick, trees can help.  Hospital patients who have a view of nature recover faster from surgery and require less pain medication, so hospital have begun building gardens for patients and for staff who have demanding jobs.

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to think maybe I haven’t appreciated the trees around me enough. 

I just returned from the absolute best Habitat build - ever.  Without exaggeration, I’ve probably visited over 100 houses built by Habitat for Humanity and been to dozens of build events.  I’ve never left one feeling disappointed; never felt like my time wasn’t very well spent; could always see the tangible impact of the volunteers’ efforts.  But the one I participated in last week truly stands apart.

I meant to write this last week on the plane ride home, but I needed some time and perspective to consider why this event was different.  Almost all volunteer events are special and rewarding; you always leave feeling better about human beings than when you arrived.  For me, when the work involves a house, it is even more fulfilling because someone has trusted you to come into their home, their most personal place, and allowed you to put part of yourself there, whether by building it, improving it or repairing it.  (And, I must admit, that I often wonder whether I would want someone like me working on my own home!)  Last week’s event was unusual in a number of ways, not the least of which was the spectacular location in Colorado - in September, no less.  Additionally, it was an amazingly large event, the largest I’ve participated in, with over 600 volunteers and thanks to Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity, exceptionally well organized.

Because there were so many of us, we worked on a significant number of houses and did a wide variety of work.  Our volunteers from The Home Depot and the companies that provide our products swarmed on over a dozen yards and homes, building foundations, framing walls, constructing garages and fences, painting sheds and planting trees and bushes.  In the course of one day, we invested 4,000 hours of work and visibly transformed the neighborhood.  Eventually there will be 68 families living in this community, and they will benefit from what we did for years to come.

In thinking about it, though, I think that the reason this day will stick with me and stand out from all the other days I spend volunteering is that there were so many families that had either already moved in or were watching their homes coming out of the ground who watched us, visited us and told us their stories during the day.  There were the two houses standing side by side where the families of a brother and sister who are refugees from violence in Africa will celebrate New Years 2011 together.  The sister spent the day in the garage of her neighbor across the street serving fresh food and spring rolls to sweating volunteers.  The neighbor has already moved in and is Vietnamese.  She cares for her parents and works in a nail salon.   She and her mother wanted to share their culture with these volunteers who had come as strangers and were leaving as friends.  Her father was in a wheelchair, but he came to thank everyone.  They kindly and proudly opened their home so we could see how wonderful it was.  A young couple watched their foundation being built and made sure that the volunteers had water as the sun got higher, and hotter, in the sky.  Their children, a 6 year old daughter and 4 year old son, came before school to see the site and wave to us as we got started.  That evening, the walls of their bedrooms were framed, and they could finally see what their own rooms would look like  - where their beds would go.

Because let’s be honest.  At bottom, what really gets most of us is the kids.  Everyone needs a home where they can be safe, healthy and protected.  A place that they know they’ll be able to stay because they can afford to pay for it and a place where they want to be.  Children, in particular, need a place to feel secure and stable.  The kids I met last week knew that these were going to be places where they would live for a long time with their family.  One little boy had several health issues, but you wouldn’t know it when he charged out to see us.  He had been listening to the hammering all morning and desperately wanted to see what was happening.  Isaac had already moved into a home here and because of that, his older brother had been reunited with him and his mother.  For him, that was the most important thing - here his family was together.  His mother understood that she was saving about $300 a month compared to rent she paid for their old one-bedroom apartment and that the new home was well-insulated, well-ventilated and built with materials that don’t have toxic chemicals.  She understood that this home would be safe and healthy for Isaac, who just had surgery and breathes through a tracheal tube.  She knew that the home was built to be handicap accessible if Isaac has to give up his leg braces for a wheelchair one day.

There were more families there, each of whom had a story that I’ll remember.  For me, those families and their stories transformed that day from one in which I helped build houses for future residents into one during which I was given the gift of helping families create their homes.  They spent a great deal of time thanking us for our time and effort, but I know that we owe them much more.