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Although Corazón offers a wide variety of opportunities to volunteer and provide services to the poor, the way many sponsors and volunteers first become involved is through construction projects. Corazón has been building and repairing homes in Mexico through "Build a House in a Day" projects since it’s beginning in 1978. Over the years, Corazón's construction projects have evolved from a few folks with several van loads of materials and tools going to Tijuana a few times a year to repair or build new homes for the poor to an organized schedule of over 50 construction projects a year building a variety of well designed houses, classrooms, community centers or other building projects. Over the same time, the structures being built have matured from simple plywood buildings to attractive frame buildings with windows, doors that lock, concrete or raised wooden floors, sleeping lofts, a small kitchen area, and gabled roofs.
The 12 foot by 20 foot "Classic Corazón House" with a raised floor can be built on a small, uneven lot by using cut-off telephone poles to elevate and level the floor. A matching 4' by 4' outhouse typically completes the project. From the early 1980’s to the late 1990’s this was the principal house Corazón built, and several hundred of them were constructed in over a dozen villages in Mexico. In recent years, Corazón has built mainly larger, 16 foot by 20-foot "Super Build" style homes on concrete pads. Local Mexican volunteers, many trained through Corazón's construction class, prepare the concrete pads a few days before the scheduled projects. This allows a larger home, with a larger loft area and drains installed for an indoor bathroom to be constructed with about equal cost. Both projects can normally be completed in one day by volunteer groups of 40-60 volunteers and a few experienced Corazón leaders.
Sponsoring groups do not need to have volunteers with construction experience, though a few people with basic carpentry or construction skills are always an asset. Each project has an experienced lead builder in charge of the construction and project safety, a trip coordinator responsible for liaison with the sponsoring group prior to the project and assisting the lead builder with logistical and group coordination on the day of the project. Typically a few Corazón Blue Shirts will also come along to help with aspects of the construction and to instruct and assist the volunteers. Corazón's construction projects are designed to require mainly basic skills of painting and pounding nails. The few power tools required, mainly saws to cut the lumber and siding materials on site are only operated by experienced Blue Shirts or by skilled volunteers who demonstrate they are capable of operating the equipment safely to the lead builder for the project
Sponsoring groups can sign up for a project by checking out our calendar to see what project dates are available and the types of projects offered on those dates. The group can then obtain an application and a project list, if your group is larger than 50, and submit it along with a deposit for the project. Generally projects fall into three categories:
For larger groups who are willing to take on an even bigger commitment in terms of funding and providing some volunteers with construction skills, we have opportunities to do special construction projects. Examples are larger buildings as part of a community center complex we plan and operate in several villages, classrooms for existing Mexican schools to increase availability of schooling to our scholarship recipients, or other special purpose buildings that may benefit the communities where we work. These construction projects typically take work than we can accomplish in a single Saturday project and may be scheduled over several weekends and may involve multiple sponsors. If interested, contact the office to see what opportunities we may be able to work out.
If you want to experience one of our Construction projects, but aren’t a member of a sponsoring group (or want to see if this is the sort of project a group you belong to might want to sponsor in the future), you are welcome to come on one of our projects. Our only rules are that you and the friends or family members you bring fit into one car or four-wheel drive vehicle, and that you are willing to drive that vehicle into Mexico to the project site. The sponsoring group has organized a volunteer group and the funding for the project and we ask that you work with them, rather than try and take over the project from them.
If you or members of the small group you bring have construction skills, we would love to know about it to see if there is a future fit for you in our Blue Shirt, Lead Builder, or Construction Class Instructor ranks. Minors should be accompanied by an adult, and we discourage children younger than 12 attending, at least until you are fully aware of safety, supervision, and other issues that will arise during the day. You should wear comfortable work clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty or paint on (because you will) that is appropriate to the season and climate. Bring simple hand tools (a framing hammer, utility knife, tape measure, etc.) along with a tool belt or work apron to hold them along with nails and other materials you will use. Please don’t bring power or other expensive tools --- we provide what will be used for the project along with the generators and cords to run them.
You will also need appropriate IDs to get back across the border into the U.S. at the end of the day. We meet at the Ramada Inn parking lot on “E” street in Chula Vista, just west of the 805 freeway at 6 a m on the Saturday morning of the project for a brief organizational meeting and caravan to the job site in Mexico. Mexican insurance is available at our meeting location for about $12 for the day. For Superbuilds, because of the large number of people and vehicles involved, we meet at a shopping center off of “H” street (one exit south of “E”) a few blocks east of the 805.
