our founding history

By David A. Cooper
Co-Founder, HFH of Marion County

During the mid-1990’s an effort was started at least twice to start a Habitat For Humanity affiliate in Marion County.  Woodfin Gregg and Father “Pete” Peterson of the Winfield Catholic Church were behind the efforts and held several community meetings with many people involved but the effort to get the affiliate off the ground kept floundering.   In 1998, as the Marion County Leadership program began in the Fall, one leadership group had to decide on a project that would help Marion County. 

This group consisted of David Cooper, Tina Fikes, Jan Williams, Lana Holloway, Greg McCollum, and Robeanna Green.  David Cooper had heard of Habitat For Humanity in passing and proposed the idea to the group.  The group wanted to choose a project that would have a significant impact on Marion County and chose Habitat For Humanity as their project to work on over the next 9 months.  You could call it a coincidence that the group chose Habitat For Humanity to work on but through God all great things are done and this was truly heaven sent and meant to be. 

Over the coming months the group starting digging into exactly what Habitat For Humanity’s mission was and contacted Habitat For Humanity International to understand how an affiliate could be established in Marion County.  Through this effort the group learned of Woodfin’s and Father Pete’s past efforts and contacted them to discuss what had been done and why it had failed.  The primary reason seemed to be an inconsistent group of people trying to lead the effort and a structured leadership approach.  The Marion County Leadership group was the missing piece of the puzzle and over the next nine months of dedication was able to start the foundation of establishing Habitat For Humanity of Marion County.  The work didn’t end with the Marion County Leadership Class when it graduated in May, 1999. 

The group continued to meet monthly along with other community leaders throughout Marion County to build support, establish bylaws for the non-profit organization, and fill out the required legal paperwork to submit to Habitat For Humanity International.  Through a committed effort and with God’s will Habitat For Humanity of Marion County received its official affiliation in December, 2000.  Many people came and went throughout these tough two years but a core group stayed committed to see it to completion and start building support from various civic groups, businesses, churches, and individuals. 

Habitat For Humanity of Marion County had been established and broke down the walls and barriers between the various communities and individuals of different backgrounds and races from around the county.  The affiliation had been established but the real work had only just begun.

In August of 2013 our organization was approved by International to expand to cover the Northwest Alabama counties of Fayette, Franklin, Lamar, Marion (our founding county) and Winston. Our new name - Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Alabama, and website (http://www.nwalhabitat.org) reflects this change. We are very pleased to now offer the citizens of these additional counties the opportunity for decent housing.

our current board

Habitat’s vision: A world where everyone has a decent place to live.
Mission statement: Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope.
Mission principles

  • Demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ.
    We undertake our work to demonstrate the love and teachings of Jesus, acting in all ways in accord with the belief that God’s love and grace abound for all, and that we must be “hands and feet” of that love and grace in our world. We believe that, through faith, the miniscule can be multiplied to accomplish the magnificent, and that, in faith, respectful relationships can grow among all people.
  • Focus on shelter.
    We have chosen, as our means of manifesting God’s love, to create opportunities for all people to live in decent, durable shelter. We put faith into action by helping to build, renovate or preserve homes, and by partnering with others to accelerate and broaden access to affordable housing as a foundation for breaking the cycle of poverty.
  • Advocate for affordable housing.
    In response to the prophet Micah’s call to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God, we promote decent, affordable housing for all, and we support the global community’s commitment to housing as a basic human right. We will advocate for just and fair housing policy to eliminate the constraints that contribute to poverty housing. And, in all of our work, we will seek to put shelter on hearts and minds in such powerful ways that poverty housing becomes socially, politically and religiously unacceptable.
  • Promote dignity and hope.
    We believe that no one lives in dignity until everyone can live in dignity. We believe that every person has something to contribute and something to gain from creating communities in which all people have decent, affordable places to live. We believe that dignity and hope are best achieved through equitable, accountable partnerships.
  • Support sustainable and transformational development.
    We view our work as successful when it transforms lives and promotes positive and lasting social, economic and spiritual change within a community; when it is based on mutual trust and fully shared accomplishment; and when it demonstrates responsible stewardship of all resources entrusted to us.

Non-proselytizing policy
Habitat for Humanity International and its affiliated organizations will not proselytize. Nor will HFH work with entities or individuals who insist on proselytizing as part of their work with HFH. This means that HFH will not offer assistance on the expressed or implied condition that people must adhere to or convert to a particular faith or listen and respond to messaging designed to induce conversion to a particular faith.