Baltimore Womens’s Giving Circle

By participating in Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity’s All Women Build in 2005, Vondeleia qualified for a house of her own. A momentous opportunity for this little family headed by a single parent.

Vondaleia is one of the nearly 20 homeowners who began taking advantage of the program in 2005.

A House Becomes a Home

For Vondeleia, a house truly became a home when she learned how to deal with the finances.

Once she had the house, she needed the financial know-how that would help keep the new roof over their heads. Again she turned to Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity and enrolled in its Family Services program, which is integral to the home ownership process.

In 2006, the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle granted Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity $15,000 to help support the Family Services program. The money was used directly for two successful initiatives within the Family Services Department. The first, Chesapeake’s Matched Savings Accounts, is a savings program that Chesapeake Habitat homeowners can take part in. With Chesapeake Matched Savings Accounts, homeowners save $42 a month through a structured, two-year program for a total of $1,000. Once complete, they receive a 2:1 match. The savings plus the match can be used towards their own higher education, their children’s education, starting a small business, making home improvements, or investing in retirement. This program helps Chesapeake Habitat homeowners re-evaluate their budgets and find ways to better manage their money and savings.

Vondaleia is one of the nearly 20 homeowners who began taking advantage of this program in 2005. Along with other homeowners, Vondaleia was able to save her $1,000 over the course of two years through regular deposits into her matched savings account. At the end of the two-year period, she used her money, along with the $2,000 match through the incentive program, to pay for her son's tuition to a private school in her neighborhood. She was so excited to be able to provide a quality education for her son through money she worked so hard to save.

In addition to Matched Savings, the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle's funding helped Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity start its most concentrated effort to provide a full curriculum of financial, homeownership and budgeting courses for its clients in preparation for becoming homeowners. “While financial education has always been a big part of our work,” says Emily Grant, CHH resource development manager, “ it was never as broad and expansive as it came to be in 2007. Chesapeake Habitat increased the number of mandatory ‘sweat equity’ hours required of Habitat homeowners. Within these additional hours we incorporated classes on insurance, retirement planning, budgeting and home safety and encouraged a more holistic view of the world of homeownership for our families.”