Everyone who is interested in building with us at Habitat for Humanity- Trenton Area must first attend a volunteer orientation.

To help alleviate confusion we have a live online calendar that displays the name of each volunteer group and how many volunteers they will be bringing. This is a tool that you can use to help decide what dates you might want to volunteer. Instead of making several phone calls checking availability, you can see our schedule right in front of you while checking for availability in your schedule.

We take a maximum of 12 volunteers per day (some corporate groups have more than 12, but those are Teambuild days).  12 is the maximum amount of TOTAL volunteers we take per day, so if you see a date with a group that has less than 12 volunteers, it is a potential volunteer date for you. You are able to make up the difference to a maximum of 12 total volunteer on that build day. As you check the calendar you may notice a build that has a group of 10 volunteers. If you would like to come build as an individual you are more than welcome to come build that day. If you see that there is a group of 11 volunteers coming to volunteer and you are your friend are looking to build that day, you will not be able to participate as the two of you will bring us over our 12 volunteer limit.

We build Wednesday through Saturday of every week. As you look at the calendar, if there is a blank day on the calendar between Wednesday and Saturday this does not mean we are not building, it means we have no volunteers. In that case you are definitely more than welcome to come volunteer that day.

Once you check the calendar for available date you must e-mail the Volunteer Coordinator to confirm the date’s availability. DO NOT show up on the worksite without having received confirmation from the Volunteer Coordinator about your spot on the build. If you show up without confirming your attendance with the Volunteer Coordinator first, you will be asked to leave. We are strict with our confirmation rule because it is important for our Construction Coordinator to be prepared for the amount of volunteers that will show up on each day. The Construction Coordinator uses the information received from the Volunteer Coordinator to prepare tasks and materials appropriate for the number of people who will be working.

Once you have e-mailed the Volunteer Coordinator with the potential dates that you are interested in volunteering, he/she will confirm those dates that will work with our schedule. If there is a date that is full or otherwise problematic the Volunteer Coordinator will respond with a brief explanation as to why that suggested date would not work out.

You may request several build dates all at one time or just one particular date. The Volunteer Coordinator will send a response confirming or denying all the dates all at once. This is a first come first serve system. The sooner you e-mail your date requests the better odds you have of getting the dates you want and all e-mails and phone calls are returned in the order they are received.

While we welcome and appreciate team/group builds, due to Saturdays being in such high demand, Habitat for Humanity East Trenton Area has implemented a new policy: Teams/Groups are permitted to build with us only ONE SATURDAY per month. Volunteerism is a decision to appeal to the basic generosity of the human spirit and we hope this new policy will allow other volunteers the same opportunity.