In between our Habitat for Humanity builds, our affiliate likes to expand our public outreach by developing new relationships, and executing collaborative projects. One of our most recent ventures involved teaming up with Open Door Mission, in Glens Falls, to foster our shared passion for community wellbeing.

In addition to hot meals and shelter, Open Door Mission provides their guests with encouragement for daily living, case management, counseling, connections to community resources, medical screenings, substance abuse recovery programs and counseling, training classes, budgeting, life and job skills, transportation, and advocacy. Like Habitat, their mission is to provide practical solutions to wealth-based issues, within the local community.

Kim Cook (President and CEO of Open Door) and Adam Feldman (Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity) discussed various ways in which our non-profit teams could join forces to do more good, for more people. With winter approaching and, inevitably, colder temps to follow, both Kim and Adam agreed that Habitat could help provide building services for the shelter’s expansion. Fueled by warm coffee and yummy treats from Kru Coffee (shameless plug for them, because they really are SO GOOD), Habitat supplied numerous volunteers, across 9 days to offer framing, sheetrocking, shelving construction, and electrical assistance.

We could not be more thrilled for this partnership, and to see the fruits of our combined labor- a beautiful new shelter; complete with pantry, bathrooms, bedrooms, a barber shop, and so much more! The pride that the Open Door staff have in their work, and the dignity with which they treat their guests radiates throughout the space. We are so happy to call those at Open Door partners, and friends.

Although Habitat and Open Door both have a solid volunteer base, it is never too late to get involved! Please visit  https://opendoor-ny.org/volunteer/ or the volunteer section of our Habitat website to learn more about how you can get involved in these once and a lifetime opportunities to give back!