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Youths taking charge for housing needs |
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Monday, 17 March 2008 |
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Courier Staff Habitat Youth United of Saline County is joining more than 250 youth groups from around the country to raise awareness for the need for more affordable housing, and in hopes of raising money to build another Habitat Youth house this summer.
The group is participating in Habitat for Humanity’s Act! Speak! Build! Week, a student-initiated week of advocacy. Daily activities have been organized from March 31 through April 6 to highlight the need to eliminate substandard housing.
“The goal of Act! Speak! Build! Week is to not only make people aware of poverty housing issues, but to mobilize people to do something about it,” said Faith Zahn, Habitat international youth programs coordinator.
“We are extremely pleased that so many groups are committed to educating themselves and their communities about this important issue.”
As part of this year’s theme, “Recognize the Need, Advocate for Change,” Youth United of Saline County is planning what they hope will become an annual event to illustrate the need for decent and affordable housing in Saline County, said Ginny Hawkins, Habitat Youth United adult sponsor.
The Youth United Sleep Out Party and Pancake Breakfast will be held from 8 p.m. Friday, April 4, to 8 a.m. Saturday, April 5, on the Saline County courthouse lawn and gazebo and in the Christian Life Center at First United Methodist Church across the street.
Participating youth groups will be providing materials and constructing a shelter for them to sleep in over night. They will obtain sponsors for their project or the hours spent at the sleep-out event. The structures will be judged by monetary contributions during the pancake breakfast to be held the following morning.
The breakfast is being sponsored by the First United Methodist Church CAYA youth group and the Men’s Prayer Breakfast group and will feature a speaker from Habitat for Humanity.
Pancakes and extras will be served from 8 to 10 a.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children. Tickets will be available for purchase in advance and at the door.
“Act! Speak! Build! Week has provided us with the necessary tools to collectively move to social action and raise awareness about issues related to poverty housing,” Hawkins said. “We hope that the events that we have planned inspire our peers and our community to become involved with this movement to create more affordable housing opportunities.”
Act! Speak! Build! Week is one of the many programs Habitat’s Youth Programs department uses to engage youth around the world in Habitat’s mission, Hawkins said. State Farm is the 2008 underwriter for Habitat’s Youth Programs department.
Habitat Youth United of Saline County was founded in 2004 and has involved hundreds of youth in various fundraising activities to fund and build the first Youth United-sponsored home in the central United States during the summer of 2006.
It is the group's goal to use this event to continue the fundraising effort and to build a home for a family in need during the last week in June.
For more information, call Jan Morse at 315-9637, Paige Mann at 231-0153 or Terry Pfeiffer at 951-0056.
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