By Charlotte Murphy, IU Corps Intern
Every year, the Kelley Institute for Social Impact (KISI) partners with Habitat for Humanity and Whirlpool on a house build for families in need of decent, safe, and affordable housing. KISI offers programs and internships that encourage students to think broadly about the impact of their work on the local community and the world. The mission of Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County is to expand affordable housing opportunities by partnering with people in our community. Their vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live.
A Habitat for Humanity house build includes framing and constructing an affordable home. Build sites vary globally, using local materials and designs, and new homes are built to be energy efficient. From October 16 to November 2, Kelley students had the opportunity to volunteer on a site here in Bloomington. Students were connected through KISI. KISI’s mission is to empower undergraduate students to make positive changes in their community, whether that is in Bloomington or across the world.
Tommy Gardner is the Assistant Director for KISI, who outlined some of KISI’s initiatives to get involved with various student organizations, professional development opportunities, international internships, and events.
“We want to provide [students with] opportunities to enact positive change,” Gardner said. “We do that in a few different ways. One of those is the Habitat for Humanity and Whirlpool Build. It really is one of the most tangible opportunities for our students to participate in giving back to the community. We feel that it’s important to show Bloomington how much we appreciate them and to give back to how much they support the university.”
Habitat has been in partnership with Whirlpool since 1999, and the Kelley Whirlpool build event began in 2010. Together, Kelley, Whirlpool, and Habitat for Humanity have built over 15 houses. This year, Kelley students worked on Emmanuel and Onga Kanamuli’s home. They, along with their four children, are the future homeowners of the house Kelley students helped build. Habitat’s homebuyers invest hundreds of hours of their own labor, called sweat equity, working alongside volunteers and other Habitat homeowners in addition to paying an affordable mortgage and receiving financial education.
“A really neat thing about this year is that Whirlpool sponsored five net-zero homes to be built all this year,” Gardner said. “Whirlpool’s former CEO, Jeff Fettig, is passionate about Bloomington and supporting Habitat. It’s part of their mission to give back to the communities they serve, so Whirlpool donates appliances to every single Habitat for Humanity home that is built, not just here in Bloomington but all across the world.”
The Osage Place neighborhood is in Bloomington and has a unique quality: it is made up of all Habitat homes. Bloomington was one of the first sites for Habitat to build a community of homes in a neighborhood, rather than a standalone house.
“All of these homes have these great big front porches and it’s a walkable neighborhood right by RCA Park. It’s a special project they’ve been working on, and Bloomington is really supportive of this program,” Gardner said.
KISI had a great turnout of volunteers at the site with 169 registered volunteers, including many from the Civic Leadership Development Program, Thomason Fellows, Kelley Honors, and the Professional Fraternity Council.
“Over the course of those few weeks, we’ve had 169 volunteers registered,” Gardner said. “Each shift is about 3.5 hours long, so that comes out to just under 600 total hours of human work being put into the Whirlpool home this year. We’ve had an excellent turnout. It’s always neat to see students, faculty and staff come in and learn from the Habitat construction crew.”
An additional perk of volunteering is the skills that can be learned from the Habitat construction crew.
“The Habitat crew is a wealth of knowledge, and they have a skill set that a lot of people don’t have doing home repair,” Gardner said. “We’re not going to gain those working in the office, so it’s a great opportunity to give back to the community and pick up a few new skills that we can take back to our own homes.”
The Kelley and Whirlpool Habitat for Humanity build is KISI’s most publicized volunteer opportunity, but they offer many other opportunities year-round.
“Whether that’s joining one of our [KISI] student organizations like Civic Leadership Development, participating in the Kelley Impact Competition, or participating in some of our new programs like the Local Impact Initiative, [we offer volunteer opportunities],” Gardner said. “I always encourage everyone to follow our newsletter. We’ve got all sorts of great announcements on ways to get involved. One other great way to get involved is becoming a KISI Student Ambassador. We’ll be doing the next round of applications in January and that’s a great way for students to get involved with KISI and help expand students’ knowledge of what KISI does.”
KISI has many opportunities available for students to volunteer. Learn more about KISI on their website or sign up for their newsletter. To learn more about Habitat for Humanity, check out the Monroe County Habitat for Humanity website and the Habitat for Humanity at IU beINvolved page.
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