Rebuilding Together is the nation's largest volunteer organization working in partnership with the community, and our corporate sponsors, to rehabilitate the homes of low income senior, veteran, and disable homeowners. All of the work is done by volunteers and contractors, supported by the community, so there is never any cost to the homeowner.
Safe and healthy housing is the primary purpose of our work; it's who we are, and what we have always been about. Our work is most ... Read More
Rebuilding Together is the nation's largest volunteer organization working in partnership with the community, and our corporate sponsors, to rehabilitate the homes of low income senior, veteran, and disable homeowners. All of the work is done by volunteers and contractors, supported by the community, so there is never any cost to the homeowner.
Safe and healthy housing is the primary purpose of our work; it's who we are, and what we have always been about. Our work is most impactful when we invest in making individual homes safer and healthier while strengthening the community. As the number of seniors grows dramatically, millions of homes must be modified to allow them to age safely in place. Rising income inequality and displacement prompted by gentrification underscores the urgency to help low income homeowners with critical home repairs that help them stay in their homes and preserve their most important asset, in addition to protecting the health and safety.
Our safe and healthy housing approach is strongly informed by the Eight Principles of Healthy Homes developed by the National Center for Healthy Housing and endorsed by HUD. A healthy homes is clean, dry, pest-free, safe, thermally controlled, ventilated, maintained, and contaminant-free. Embracing a clear set of goals and priorities to focus attention on the results and outcomes of our repairs has been the driving force behind our progress on safe and healthy housing. We find that relying on a clear set of measures helps to set priorities for repairs as well as to manage homeowners expectations. Most importantly, consistent reporting results of our repairs based on a clear set of measures helps demostrate our impact to our partners and funders. The 25 Health and Safety Priorities allow the use of a common framework to articulate our work, assess each home thoroughly and consistently keep track of the results of all repair projects, large and small. Tracking and reporting results consistently offers the best path toward common and uniform practices. Our impact is measured by the differences our repairs make in reducing risks to occupants' health and safety, in addition to the number of homes repaired. Capturing the "before" and "after" data on every project allows us to articulate the level of critical safety hazards we often see in the homes we serve, as well as quantify the impact on migating and removing these hazards in homes.
As part of a national network we have access to various tools and strategies to improve the quality and consistency of repairs; as well support with technical support with infrastructure and organizational capacity.
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