ROCK THE BLOCK: Neighborhood cleanups for low-income communities

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West Tuality Habitat for Humanity believes everyone deserves a safe and decent place to live and volunteers help make it happen. Our programs not only build homes, they build community.

The West Tuality Habitat for Humanity’s Critical Home Repair program serves the elderly, people with disabilities, low or fixed-incomes, and military veterans who are homeowners in our area of Western Washington County, including Forest Grove, Banks, Cornelius, North Plains, Gaston, Gales Creek and the surrounding area. This program includes half day-long neighborhood cleanups targeting these vulnerable homeowners, which we call ROCK THE BLOCK.

These cleanup events make homes more livable and can restore dignity to a neighborhood. These cleanups also can help elderly people age in place for more years. Cleanups also encourage a sense of community in an area and help volunteers understand the challenges to home maintenance for vulnerable home owners in Western Washington County, Oregon.

Volunteers can help at just one event or a series of events, all of which happen in the morning. Volunteers help move items from the homeowners that they have moved to the curb into dumpsters rented by Habitat. This can include large pieces, like furniture, and small things, like old planter boxes. Some items, like bicycles in good condition or gently used tools, are recycled for sale in the Forest Grove ReStore, so that the sales can help fund the programs of Habitat for Humanity, or donated to other nonprofits that will recycle and restore them.

Volunteers will be walking and lifting frequently throughout the day.

Volunteers do NOT enter homes and work with other volunteers and Habitat staff, who are present onsite at all times.

Participants go through an onsite safety training and must follow our Code of Conduct, which is available on our web site and is posted at the work site.

Gloves will be provided but you are welcomed to bring your own. Protective glasses, safety vests and hard hats, if needed, will also be provided but you are welcomed to bring your own. Volunteers are asked to wear closed-toe shoes or boots and to wear comfortable clothes that you don’t mind getting paint on or getting dirty. Layering clothing is recommended as temperatures can change throughout the day. Remember, we work rain or shine!

We strongly discourage you from bringing valuables, including jewelry, to our worksites. Personal power tools are not allowed. There is no smoking, drugs, or alcohol allowed on our worksites.

We also strongly encourage you to follow West Tuality Habitat for Humanity on Facebook and Instagram and YouTube and to view our web site to learn more about us.