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Conference registration is SOLD OUT for 2025! If you have any questions, please email Jessica.

We are excited to welcome you to our 2025 Habitat Florida Affiliate Conference! This year’s theme is Building Tomorrow, Together. As a network, we are embracing change, overcoming challenges, and finding innovative ways to serve our communities. Across Florida, the affordable housing crisis has required our affiliates to continually adapt. Yet, in the face of these challenges, the spirit of Habitat remains strong. Affiliates across the state are scaling up, building more, and serving more families than ever before. Together, we are forging a future where safe, affordable housing is within reach for all.  

We have lined up an incredible slate of speakers and sponsors to share their wealth of knowledge with our affiliate network! Thank you for your participation! If you are looking to book your rooms for the conference, you can do so here. The hotel will discount the taxes with a copy of your tax-exempt certificate. This conference, from April 28-30, 2025 at The Shores Resort and Spa is exclusively for Florida affiliate employees and volunteers. 
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HFHI Disaster Response Focus Group
Monday April 28, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT
Surf Room
Was your affiliate impacted by Hurricane Helene or Milton? We want to hear from you to help improve our disaster response program. Please participate in this focus group led by Habitat International. Here is a preview of the questions you will be asked.

Focus Group Questions

Your input will help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of future disaster responses. Your responses will only be used to improve services and streamline coordination of future disaster responses by HFHI and HFH of Florida.

Let's talk about specific aspects of the disaster response. 

Assessing Disaster Damage
1. The Florida ASO relied on the survey tool and phone calls to assess the impact of the Hurricane Helene/Milton on affiliates and communities. How did that process work for you?

  • Did the process allow you to communicate the most pressing needs of your affiliate?
  • How could the assessment process be improved?

Levels of Support

2. Did the level of support received by your affiliate from HFH of Florida match your affiliate’s need?

  • How would you rate the support with funding (direct financial support)?
  • Technical assistance (e.g., safety guidelines for post disaster cleaning activities, counseling on mortgage forbearance processes)
  • Coordination (e.g., connecting impacted affiliates with experienced affiliates for guidance)
  • Leveraging resources (e.g., coordination of ReStores round up campaigns to support disaster impacted affiliates, making available donated products, resources or connecting affiliates with potential donations, sharing information of available grants, amplifying affiliates' fundraising campaigns)
  • What approach would have been most helpful for the Hurricane Helene/Milton disaster response for your affiliate?

Capacity and Volunteers 
3. Thinking of your capacity and needs during the Hurricane Helene/Milton response, would it have been helpful to deploy volunteers during the response? 

  • If so, what roles could volunteers support? 

Communication

4. What communication from HFH of Florida did you find most helpful during the Hurricane Helene/Milton disaster response?

  • Is there additional communication that would have been helpful for your affiliate (e.g., additional status updates, individual calls etc.)?

Overall experience
5. Please share your overall experience with Hurricane Helene/Milton disaster response by HFH of Florida. 

  • How satisfied were you with the disaster response coordination with HFH of Florida? Why?
  • What worked well? What tools and processes from your ASO were most helpful before, during, and after the Hurricane Helene/Milton disaster?
  • What were the main challenges in working with HFH of Florida (if any)?
  • What changes and improvements would you like to see from HFH of Florida? From HFHI?
  • If you have experience with coordinating disaster responses directly with HFHI in the past, how does this experience compare to coordinating the Hurricane Helene/Milton response with HFH of Florida?

Resources and Trainings

6. If you could receive additional resources or training from HFH of Florida or HFHI to improve disaster responses in the future, what would be most helpful?
  • What types of support from HFHI or your ASO would be most helpful when it comes to fundraising and fund allocation (e.g., grant writing, donor outreach, national fundraising campaign)?
  • What about technical assistance?
  • Any other resources or training that would have been helpful (e.g., coordination, leveraging resources)?

Lessons Learned

7. What good practices from your affiliate could be shared with other affiliates?

Additional feedback
8. Please share any additional feedback that could improve ASO’s or HFHI’s support for your affiliate.
Speakers
avatar for Melissa Rivera

Melissa Rivera

Affiliate Engagement & Success Manager, Habitat for Humanity International
I reside in New Smyrna, Florida, and have been at HFHI for over 11 years. In my current role, I integrate a user-centered approach to design resources and trainings to support Habitat offices with their outcome measurement work and contributing to building Habitat's evidence base... Read More →
Monday April 28, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm EDT
Surf Room 11th Floor
  General

Attendees (3)


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