Habitat for Humanity of Greater Lowell

One of the most popular volunteering events amongst employees at Corning Life Sciences is helping build a house with Habitat for Humanity, a global organization working in local communities to build decent and affordable homes. It's an opportunity to take a screen break, to use power tools, and to work with colleagues from other teams. Through the Corning Foundation, Corning Life Sciences (HQ in MA) has supported Habitat for Humanity of Greater Lowell?since 2016.

H4H is currently renovating a house in Concord, MA (a suburb known for Walden Pond and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women). The house is being converted into a duplex with the lower level to be a 2 bedroom unit and the upper level to be maintained as a 3 bedroom. Site work on this property began in June 2021 with the kick off of Women Build, and is expected to be completed in spring 2022. The house was built in early 1900’s and acquired through a collaborative effort with the Town of Concord, their Community Preservation Committee, the Concord Housing Foundation and the Concord Housing Development Corp. H4H builds are designed using LEED principles for design, materials utilization, recycling of waste, and energy efficiency for future maintenance.

In August and November of 2021, several groups of CLS employees worked on this house (the sixth house that CLS has participated in). Despite the tricky weather this year, everyone brought their enthusiasm and flexibility. We had a heat wave in Aug so one of the four shifts got postponed. We had a Noreaster Nov day, so we cleaned the interior space for the incoming HVAC crew rather than hang shingles in the rain. Maz, our H4H lead, says getting organized is 90% of a contractor's job and that helps the incoming team hit the ground running -- a very important message that translates to our daily work as well. The transformation over a few months is incredible, and we're excited to continue working on the house in the spring!

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Lowell’s vision is a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live and housing poverty and homelessness are eliminated. It believes that the home is a key catalyst in helping to permanently break the cycle of poverty, and it works to strengthen families and communities by building and renovating decent, energy efficient, and affordable homes. The Greater Lowell chapter of Habitat for Humanity serves 16 communities in Northern Middlesex county: Billerica, Bedford, Burlington, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Dunstable, Lowell, North Reading, Reading, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro, Wakefield, Westford, Wilmington. It’s building its 50th and 51st homes this year as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. Check out https://lowellhabitat.org/ for ways you or your team can get involved!

Highlights from this year:

You know it's serious when our General Manager comes out to volunteer.

See you in 2022!

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One of the initiatives I lead at?Corning Life Sciences?is connecting local nonprofits in the Greater Boston/Lowell area with grants from the?Corning Foundation, and extending those partnerships to employee volunteer opportunities! I'll be sharing on LinkedIn, so follow along using the hashtags:?#CorningFoundation?and?#CorningVolunteers.