This Creating Change post is from guest blogger Heidi May, a new addition to the Discovery Communications family and publicist for Discovery Education. Stay tuned for more guest posts later today.
Today, our team has been Creating Change for Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County (HFH-MC). The mission of HFH-MC is to transform lives by building simple, decent homes for local families in need. Despite being one of the most affluent counties in the country, the gap between wages and living costs in Montgomery County continues to grow. Renting a decent, affordable place is difficult, at best, for a low-income family in the community, and purchasing a home is out of reach for most of these families. It is the goal of HFH-MC to give low-income families the opportunity to grow in a healthy, affordable home environment. Better quality of living leads to strong citizens and families, and good, stable housing matters for neighborhoods. To date, HFH-MC has made “home” possible for 60 local families, changing the lives of hundreds of individuals.
For HFH-MC, our Discovery team has spent the day developing a media plan and materials to help generate awareness and build support for the organization. We also have been brainstorming ideas to promote and generate media coverage of their annual Women Build project and an upcoming building initiative in Gaithersburg, MD.
I asked my teammates what Creating Change has meant to them:
Matt Higgins: Creating Change is a great opportunity to work with people across the company who you do not typically work with and generate ideas that can be used in our work as well.
Alana Carchedi: It is a great opportunity to learn about the amazing nonprofit organizations in our local community.
Jennifer Marburg: As a multi-national media company, sometimes we take for granted all of the resources we have at hand. It’s quite satisfying to use our resources to help organizations that are not as fortunate to have these resources.
Debbie Sullivan: Creating Change is a great way for Discovery employees to give back. There is countless talent in this building, and it is wonderful to have the opportunity to share our skills with different organizations who truly appreciate it.
I echo the sentiments of my teammates…what a great day! I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate.
For more information or to get involved with Habitat for Humanity for Montgomery County, I invite you to visit www.habitat-mc.org.