Volunteers to Help Transform Louisiana Community on MLK Day of Service

WASHINGTON, January 15, 2016 – In honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, 100 AmeriCorps members serving with Rebuilding Together – a leading national nonprofit in safe and healthy housing – and Volunteer Louisiana will perform free critical home repair services for low-income homeowners in the Monroe neighborhood of Lafayette, Louisiana.

The event is being hosted by Rebuilding Together Acadiana – an affiliate of Rebuilding Together that repairs and renovates the homes of low-income older homeowners, military veterans and individuals with disabilities in the greater Acadiana community. Since 1998, Rebuilding Together Acadiana has renovated and modified more than 900 Acadiana homes with a market value of more than $15 million in repairs.

This is the fifth year that Rebuilding Together Acadiana has hosted this project on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Rebuilding Together AmeriCorps members and volunteers, serving a collective 3,000 hours, will repair six homes for residents of Monroe. In addition, AmeriCorps members will assist Bridge Ministries – a community organization empowering lives through spiritual transformation, education and neighborhood revitalization – with repairs to their local community space in Monroe.

“This working class neighborhood has struggled with change over the last couple of decades,” said Jodee Ware, executive director of Rebuilding Together Acadiana. “With recent community calls to action and developments within the area, Rebuilding Together Acadiana is proud to partner with the Monroe community to stabilize the housing conditions for the long-time residents so that they can stay safely in their homes and realize the benefits of an improving neighborhood.”