May 4, 2016 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Flowers and breakfast in bed are nice ways to mark Mother’s Day, but since 2008 Habitat for Humanity has offered an alternative option: building houses. This is the ninth year the nonprofit has hosted National Women Build Week, a volunteer campaign to recruit mothers and other women to don construction hats during the week leading up to Mother’s Day.
The event has proven popular, with more than 18,000 people, mostly women, volunteering at build sites run by more than 300 local Habitat offices last year. More than a third of the 2015 participants were returning National Women Build Week volunteers.
But Lowe’s, the home-improvement retail chain that has supported the event for the past nine years, wanted to find out more about what motivates women to volunteer and what prevents others from doing so. So the company worked with a research firm to run an online survey of 1,000 women.
About 96 percent of respondents said volunteering during boosted their overall well-being, and 94 percent said it’s a fun way to spend time with friends.
That makes sense to Lisa Marie Nickerson, associate director of Habitat for Humanity International’s Women Build Program.
“There’s a camaraderie that’s built among women when they work together,” she says. “With National Women Build Week, I have found there’s something inspiring about connecting it with Mother’s Day. We encourage women to all come out together. There’s something moving about building alongside mothers, friends, and sisters.”
The survey also suggests that some women prefer volunteering to more traditional Mother’s Day alternatives: Seventy percent of respondents indicated they would rather donate time to a cause than go to a spa.
But the research revealed an obstacle for some. Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they most enjoy volunteer work that teaches a new skill or ability, and 70 percent said they have fun doing hands-on volunteer work. But 52 percent worry they don’t have the skills needed to volunteer — a figure that rises to 75 percent for construction-related volunteering.
“That resonated with me,” Ms. Nickerson said. “The one thing I hear often is that women can be intimidated about coming onto the build site.”
Fortunately, National Women Build Week has skills workshops to prepare women. From January through June, local Habitat for Humanity offices work with Lowe’s to offer clinics on topics such as power-tool safety, installing roofing shingles, and framing walls.
“The how-to clinics we offer in Lowe’s stores and on-site at the builds with Habitat for Humanity are helpful in empowering women and giving them the confidence to take part in the event,” said James Frison, Lowe’s director of community relations, in an email.
The survey results suggest that advertising those workshops, plus marketing National Women Build Week as a social activity with friends and family, might help recruit more women volunteers.
