Overview of the Interfaith Build for Unity
In a time of division, uncertainty and fear, Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity is working together with our community to build homes, unity, and hope. While El Paso County is home to diverse political opinions and theological beliefs, we can all agree that everyone deserves a safe and decent place to call home.
In 2021, Pikes Peak Habitat started bringing together congregations, groups, and communities from a variety of faith traditions, spiritual practices, and beliefs who worked side by side to build affordable homes for families in El Paso County. In March 2022, Pikes Peak Habitat and our valued partners celebrated the completion of the 1st Interfaith Build for Unity (IBU) home. The 2nd IBU home was dedicated in April 2023, and the 3rd was completed in February 2024.
IBU volunteer days are times of celebrating tolerance, cooperation, and love for our neighbor as volunteers come together to help make homeownership possible for a local family.
How the IBU Works
- Invite members of your faith community or group to participate in an IBU volunteer day. (No experience is necessary, but volunteers on our construction site must be at least 16 years old.) You can also volunteer as an individual.
- Volunteers from two different faith traditions are paired for the day. The groups work together, share lunch, and stand unified as friends and equals.
Meet the 2024 Interfaith Build for Unity Partner Family
Isxel moved to the United States from Mexico when she married more than two decades ago. She lived in a house her husband owned, and she didn’t have opportunities to learn English. The house was old and in poor repair, she recalls, and he didn’t try to fix anything. “I prayed with God. I said, ‘Yes, I trust you. I know that you love me, and one day you’ll give me something different,’” she says.
"You are like angels for me! It's really a blessing. This opportunity is really, really good for people that need it. I feel blessed and grateful, so positive. It’s something really good for me and my children!"
Previous IBU Partner Families
Faith in Action e-Newsletter
Check out our monthly Faith in Action e-newsletter for communities interested in interfaith opportunities!
Resources
- IBU Individual Involvement Form (Google form)
- 4th IBU Faith Community Involvement Form (PDF)
- Check out how the concept of the golden rule and helping others is included in a variety of holy texts from different faith traditions (PDF)
Community Partners
We would like to recognize this ever growing list of partners, friends, supporters, volunteers, and donors. The Interfaith Build for Unity project would be nothing without the participation and enthusiasm of our local faith leaders.
Partners
Chapel of Our Savior Episcopal Church
Christ the King Lutheran Church
Colorado College Chaplain’s Office
Colorado Springs Tibetan Meditation Center
First United Methodist-Prairie Campus
Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Islamic Society of Colorado Springs
Native American Women's Association
Pikes Peak Interfaith Coalition
St. John Henry Newman Chapel & Catholic Student Center
Sunrise United Methodist Church
Tibetan Meditation Center
UCCS: Center for Religious Diversity & Public Life
US Air Force Academy Chaplain's Office
IBU in the News
Pikes Peak Habitat's interfaith initiatives are gaining local and national attention!
- IBU Bench Demonstrates Beauty of Interfaith Collaboration (Pikes Peak Habitat Spring 2024 print newsletter)
- IBU Bench: Christ City Church (Pikes Peak Habitat blog, April 29, 2024)
- Jessica Shares Her Story at 3rd Interfaith Build for Unity Launch (Pikes Peak Habitat blog, June 15, 2023)
- Why Habitat for Humanity's Theology of the Hammer Offers Hope in Polarized Times (Religion News Service, May 9, 2023)
- Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity Blesses Ground and Dedicates Home (Fox 21, April 29, 2023)
- Habitat for Humanity Hosts a Community Interfaith Event (Fox 21, Jan. 30, 2023)
- Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity Shows Support for Martin Luther King Jr. Day (KOAA, Jan. 16, 2023)
Contact Us
If you would like to learn more about how you or your community can get involved with the Interfaith Build for Unity, or engage with Habitat through our various Faith in Action Programs, please reach out:
Chloe Henry
Faith in Action Program Advisor
A Note about the Land
We acknowledge that the land on which we build is the traditional territory of the Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho Peoples. We also recognize the 48 contemporary tribal nations that are historically tied to the lands that make up this region.