Housatonic Habitat Hires Executive Director

DANBURY — Housatonic Habitat for Humanity, the Greater Danbury affiliate of the non-profit home builder Habitat for Humanity International, has hired an executive director to facilitate the organization’s major growth plans for the new millennium. Lynne Gilbert, formerly the executive director of the Danbury branch of Literacy Volunteers of America, has started work at HHfH’s Ridgefield office.

“We thought long and hard about the implications of an all-volunteer organization hiring a paid staffer,” said HHfH president Christie Daven, “and the time seemed right to make the move. We’re planning to complete four homes this year, up to twelve annually within five years, and it’s difficult to support that kind of growth without a solid infrastructure.

“And that’s what we’re getting with Lynne – someone who knows the Danbury area, how the non-profit world operates, the importance of being organized and of timely communication. I think she’ll be a real asset to the organization in our mission to eliminate substandard housing in our area.”

A former teacher, Lynne Gilbert spent 2½ years with Literacy Volunteers, and the previous decade worked in substance-abuse counseling at WestConn, Danbury’s MCCA, and elsewhere. She took the position with Habitat, she said, because she believes in the organization’s mission and “wanted to do something with a faith-based organization.” Which Habitat is: although ecumenical, it is Christian in outlook.

Housatonic Habitat is currently finishing the second of two homes on Philo Curtis Road in Newtown, and on Christmas Eve, 1999, poured the foundation for its second Danbury home, on Rowan Street. Habitat International will complete its 100,000th home some time this year.