March 9th – 17th was AmeriCorps Week, which is an opportunity to highlight the impact of AmeriCorps members on communities across the country. As part of AmeriCorps Week, Tim Erkel, one of our AmeriCorps members, joined other members from the Rebuilding Together affiliate network in Durham, North Carolina for the Safe and Healthy Housing Summit from March 8th-10th. This event was supported by ConocoPhillips and included 33 AmeriCorps members from 17 states. The AmeriCorps members came together to identify housing-related risks for three low-income Durham families and develop and implement solutions to make their homes safer, healthier and more energy efficient.
Tim said of his experience, “The Safe and Healthy Housing Summit in North Carolina was a fantastic experience that presented a wonderful opportunity for me to bring knowledge and insight back to my affiliate and to do some good in a different community than my own. Learning about the house as a system and how improvements that we make affect it was enlightening, and going out in to the community and practicing those principles with my fellow CapacityCorps members was inspiring. I’m deeply honored to have been selected to attend the Summit.”
Rebuilding Together CapacityCorps is a National Direct AmeriCorps program with 65 full-time members serving at 35 local affiliates in 20 states. Rebuilding Together AmeriCorps members build the capacity of Rebuilding Together programs so that they become sustainable, effective and efficient in helping additional low-income homeowners in need. As developing housing preservation leaders, these AmeriCorps members serve essential roles in building the capacity of their host sites in areas such as recruiting and managing volunteers, performing direct home repairs, building community partnerships, and creating new programs.