The Volunteering Page of Elizabeth Saraceno

Courtney Palm will be the first person in her family to own a home. Courtney and her daughters live with Courtney’s mother in an apartment in Louisville. Since Courtney had her baby, Ne’Cari, the home has become overcrowded. Because there aren’t enough bedrooms for everyone, Courtney and Ne’Cari sleep downstairs in a portion of the finished basement. The apartment also has some issues with leaking pipes and mold in the bathroom, and cars frequently get broken into because the parking area for the complex is not near the units. While Courtney loves her mom, she’s excited to finally be out on her own with her daughters and to give them a better place to live. Getting the keys to her own home will provide Courtney with a huge feeling of independence. She won’t have to rely on anyone else to do something for her – she will know she can do it herself. Courtney said she hopes that by watching her, her girls are learning that same independence and developing the same motivation to work hard. When Courtney thinks about what her new home will mean to her, she thinks about her family: “I get to be with my family and spend time with them and just have a place for my kids to grow up and to be happy,” she said.

Since joining the Habitat partnership, Courtney has enjoyed taking homeowner maintenance education classes and learning how to take care of the home she soon will own. She’s looking forward to getting to build with other Habitat families, not only because she knows it will teach her skills that will be helpful for her as a future homeowner, but also because she’ll be helping somebody else at the same time. Courtney is most excited to have space in her new Habitat home for her family to be able to sit down and eat together at the same time. Right now, with so many people living in the apartment with such a tiny kitchen, that’s not possible. But once Courtney purchases her Habitat home, she knows she’ll be able to set up a table and invite her family over for the holidays. Courtney said her Habitat home will be special because love will go into building it. “You just feel it,” she said. “You really feel like you did this.”