Habitat for Humanity Windsor-Essex is recruiting local volunteers to be deployed during emergencies.
The local habitat branch is one of 13 new agencies to join the ranks of the Ontario Corps.
It’s made up of skilled professionals and volunteers ready and willing to respond to natural disasters or other emergencies.
Ontario is spending 110-million dollars over three years on the corps.
Of that, Habitat for Humanity Windsor-Essex got just over half a million dollars.
CEO Fiona Coughlin says it will be spent to recruit and train 50 volunteers and six team leads.
She says the volunteers will go through two separate trainings sessions.
“They’d go through our standard habitat for humanity volunteer screening and training programs and learn all of our safety rules just for habitat for humanity," she says. "And then phase two will be working specifically on emergency response and preparedness, how to use the tools that we've got.”
Coughlin says local crews could be deployed anywhere in Ontario to do anything from sand-bagging homes to saving them from the inside.
“There was a water emergency at a northern community in Fort Hope, and one of the jobs at that time was simply pouring warm water into the toilets so that they didn't freeze over," says Coughlin.
She says joining the corps will be one of the most fulfilling volunteer opportunities.
“We try to be there when people are going through some of the worst times of their life in an emergency," she says. "And knowing you're not alone. So, seeing those volunteers come out matters a lot. We see that with our families when we're building houses with them. And when they see crews of volunteers working on their homes, they realize they're not alone.”
The funding will also help Habitat purchase a response truck to shuttle crews and equipment wherever it is needed.
Coughlin hopes to be ready to deploy local volunteers by November 1st.