Youth United

Geauga County Habitat for Humanity has an active Youth United program. Youth United is a program in which community youth come together to completely fund and build a Habitat home. Youth ages 5 to 25 serve as the leaders, planners, fund-raisers and public relations specialists while youth ages 16 to 25 build the house on site.

Top five reasons to participate in Youth United:

  1. 1. Make the dream of owning a home come true for a neighbor of yours in Geauga County.
  2. 2. Build a house from start to finish.
  3. 3. Develop leadership, social and construction skills.
  4. 4. Work with a diverse group and make new friends.
  5. 5. Make a positive difference in your community.

There are many ways for Geauga County youth to support Habitat, whether they are old enough to work at a construction site or not. Awareness/publicity, fundraising and even some construction activities keep Youth United of Geauga County busy. A few of these activities are listed below. Contact us for more information or to get involved: Send an email or call us at: 440.564.5848.

Awareness/Publicity Activities:

  • Fold Newsletters/stuff envelopes
  • Design webpage or newsletter
  • Create poster
  • Speak to schools or church groups about Youth United
  • T-shirt design contest (can be fundraising activity as well)
  • Poverty, substandard housing lessons
  • Write letter/article to local or school paper
  • Work at local community events, such as street fairs, etc.

Fundraising Activities:

  • Playhouse Build – build and raffle a playhouse
  • Pizza Sales - ask local pizzeria to donate or sell at cost and then sell to after school activity participants at your school.
  • Dress Down Day – students pay a donation to Habitat to be able to dress down
  • Candy, Flower and Bake Sales
  • Quilt Raffle- sew quilt and sell raffle tickets
  • Car Wash
  • Letter Writing Campaign - write letters to the people you know asking for support
  • Fundraising Swim - get pledges for laps completed
  • Penny Collection- start a contest to challenge each grade level to collect loose change. Winning grade level wins a pizza party or some other prize
  • Build/sell birdhouses, window boxes and mailboxes
  • Shoe size donation campaign - Size 8 shoe = $8.00
  • Lego House Contest – have different groups/classrooms build Lego houses. Place a jar in front of each house. Have students vote on their favorite house by putting money in the jar, which is donated to Habitat.

Construction Activities:

  • Decorate studs with messages and blessings for partner families
  • Painting off-site (as needed)
  • Serve lunch or snacks at the worksite
  • Clean up a lot prior to construction
  • Landscape a home after construction is completed
  • Participate on the worksite (for volunteers 16 and older)

Miscellaneous Activities:

  • Build mini-house for collection box
  • Collect house warming items for Partner Family (i.e. cleaning supplies, plants etc)
  • Decorate Thank You cards
  • Decorate a stone, rock or cement stepping stone for family

Learn more about Habitat for Humanity International’s Youth Programs.