Help Texas Recover after Hurricane Harvey

Our Hurricane Harvey relief programs in Houston and Coastal Bend had a successful holiday season filled with love, laughter and continued hard work in the community. We are excited to highlight our work with Rockport Hands of Hope, Habitat for Humanity and the Navajo Nation, in partnership with whom we completed 24 homes. By emboldening the skills of each organization, we could each specialize in a particular phase of work to accelerate the completion of those homes so families could move back in faster. The holiday spirit didn’t stop there: when they weren’t hard at work in homes, our volunteers and staff hit the pavement to distribute turkeys to Houston families, and serve hundreds of meals at the 76th Annual Jim Salem Dinner in Coastal Bend. We know that every step we take together to care for our communities adds up.

As we begin a new year, our programs are looking to make 2020 another year of putting families back into their homes. We are excited about our new partnership with Interfaith Action of Central Texas (iACT). By working together, we aim to help an additional 10 families move back home. To date, our teams have completed work on 91 homes between both programs, and are in various stages of rebuild on 8 homes, continuing to implement resilient design techniques. The use of water-resistant products, for example, allows homeowners to be better prepared for future disasters.

In addition to our traditional recovery work, we continue to partner with other local organizations in an effort to expand our impact on affected communities. In Houston, we’ve continued to support Food Not Bombs by distributing food to communities in need, while in Coastal Bend we’ve continued to work on community beautification projects with Keep Aransas County Beautiful. Volunteers worked on their off-days in an effort to preserve what is incredibly important to the community. Their hard work lends itself to our mission of community renewal above and beyond our traditional recovery work.

Thanks to the generosity of GlobalGiving and donors such as yourself, All Hands and Hearts has been able to help families get back into their homes for the holidays, and plan to continue rebuilding in Texas well into the new year. Josefina, the owner of a recently completed home, expressed her thanks: “You don’t ask for anything in return for the work — you are special people. I am excited and forever grateful to you for all you have done”.

We are so pleased to deliver another exciting update to you about our active programs in Texas! Due to the generosity of our donors, and the added support of GlobalGiving's Hurricane Harvey funds, All Hands and Hearts has completed work on 79 homes between both of our programs, and are still in various stages of rebuild on 10 homes. We just welcomed a new group of AmeriCorps CitySquare members at each program last month, who have already proven to be assets to our team. They have expanded their knowledge of various phases of the rebuild process, such as drywall, flooring, and framing. This small yet consistent group is steadily building a strong skill-set and is evolving informally into an additional mentoring/leadership resource for our shorter-term volunteers (which will help sustain this incredible momentum). This means even more families moving back into their homes!

Since our last report, we have expanded on several of our local partnerships. All Hands and Hearts was selected for the University of Houston's Day of Service, and we successfully hosted 15 students. We are also working with the marketing team to build out continued engagement with the Center for Student Involvement. We also participated in East Harris County Empowerment Councils Harvey Recovery Tour, a public outreach tour, which facilitated connections between partner organizations and outward to those needing assistance.

Also during this quarter, we finished the pilot home for resilient design in tandem with other long-term recovery groups across Houston, and continue to implement these techniques in future rebuilds. We recognize that homeowners in Texas coastal regions are especially vulnerable to future storms, and we mobilize our repair process as an opportunity to empower homeowner resilience. Our strategy focuses on using water-resistant or waterproof products, addressing existing safety issues that may pose hazards, and distributing educational materials that will allow homeowners to be more prepared for any future disasters. We are continually discussing and developing these techniques with local partners to ensure that our strategy contributes to the larger vision of resilience in Coastal Bend and across Texas.

Thank you for all that you have helped us accomplish. Because of the generosity of GlobalGiving and donors like you, All Hands and Hearts has been able to help so many families who otherwise might not have been able to receive assistance. Amy, the owner of a recently finished house, expressed her gratitude: "For two years I was hoping and praying. Just to have your organization come and help us was like a miracle on earth. I feel like I don't deserve this, because so many other people need help too. A million thank you's are not enough."