ABILITY AwarenessMark Goffeney, born with no arms, hammers on an ABILITY HouseVolunteer who is blind uses power drill on ABILITY HouseVolunteer with Intellectual Disabilities with Actress Hope AllenVolunteer who uses a wheelchair working on Honolulu ABILITY House
 Building a World of Inclusion for People with Health Conditions and Disabilities

 

Mitchell, Indiana

One of the best aspects of ABILITY Builds is that no two are every alike! This was the first ABILITY Build held in such a rural part of the country, but it didn't deter our volunteers who were excited to have the opportunity to participate on a Habitat for Humanity site.

Driving for two hours to get to the site, the team of blind and low-vision volunteers from Bosma Enterprises demonstrated their vision impairments weren't about to slow them down! In fact, when work in the crawl space was being delayed until lighting was run, one of the volunteers pointed out with a chuckle the light wasn't going to make any difference to them... and work began!

Other volunteers from the community and the local Independent Living Center rounded out the group and each demonstrated their capacity to, as they said, "get 'er done!"

Apart from their welcoming attitude toward all volunteers, regardless of their level of ability, Habitat for Humanity of Lawrence County also stood out for their commitment to visitable housing. The affiliate has adopted the standard that all their homes, regardless of the homeowner, will be built totally visitable including: a no-step entrance into the home, an accessible restroom and a bedroom on the main floor. Our kudos go out to Jym Littrell, the Executive Director and the Board of Directors who supported this initiative!

Following is a portion of an email we received from Jim:

"I did want to say thank you again for the introduction of the special needs on our build sites. Last night I was a guest speaker for a disability support group.  What astonished me was the surprise in the eyes of everyone at the meeting when they learned who had been building those days. It was like they did not believe that people with disabilities could make an impact on a family’s life on a build site. That caught me off guard. You meet people that just want to show how much they can do no matter what, and here it seems that some have accepted the ideology that they just need to survive in their own world. 

"You have not only assisted habitat in keeping true to our mission by “working in partnership with God and people everywhere, from all walks of life,” but you helped some more of our community to come out and share the love they have inside of them. THANK YOU!!!!!!!"

The Habitat home at the start of the day's building. Tony, a volunteer from the local Independent Living Center, joined the ABILITY Build.  

Blind volunteers from Bosma Enterprises hammer alongside first-time Habitat volunteers.

Jaime, an AmeriCorps member serving with Bosma Enteprises, perfects her hammering.

The wood cutting team: Bob (who has a spinal cord injury) with Old Man Withers and friend Bryan, both of whom have prosthetic legs.

  

Connie, who is blind, peeks out from the crawl space where she spent the day working.

Sally, who is blind, "escaped" from the crawl space to join her colleagues on the scafolding and try her hand out at hammering. She was pretty good, too!

Lise, AmeriCorps*VISTA member who is blind, glues insullation in the home's crawl space.

  
Romney, program director for ABILITY Awareness, braves the threat of broken nails to help secure some studs to the home's frame. A group shot of the ABILITY Build volunteers.  

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