HCA Healthcare builds healthier communities with Habitat for Humanity

We are working together with Habitat for Humanity to build stronger communities and healthier tomorrows across the country. Read on to find out more about HCA Healthcare’s rich partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Plus, meet a very special new homeowner…

 A space to feel welcome and safe. A backyard for children to play in. A new beginning. A place to call home.

HCA Healthcare is proud to partner with Habitat for Humanity to give families a place to call home. The nonprofit housing organization helps homeowners build their own homes alongside volunteers, with a vision “of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.” Historically, HCA Healthcare has used our time, talent and passion to help support over 50 Habitat builds nationally.

In our hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, 4,400 of our colleagues have swung hammers and climbed ladders with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville, facilitating the construction of 26 HCA Healthcare-sponsored homes in the greater Nashville area.

“At HCA Healthcare, our colleagues step up and care for others and each other when it’s needed most,” says Joanne Pulles, HCA Healthcare’s vice president of community engagement and president of The HCA Healthcare Foundation. “Our partnership with Habitat for Humanity has grown expediently over the years, and our most recent build was especially meaningful, as we had the privilege of helping one of our own colleagues. It was truly inspiring to witness local community members and colleagues working together to make someone’s dream of owning her own home a reality.”

The 2019 Carter Work Project

Earlier this month, we had the honor of participating in a historic week-long building blitz, constructing 21 new Habitat homes for the 2019 Carter Work Project in Nashville.

During the 36^th year of this famous event, former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter built homes alongside 21 future homeowners, HCA Healthcare colleagues and hundreds of other volunteers. The new homes inspire hope in the 42-acre Habitat-developed Nashville neighborhood community of Park Preserve.

40 HCA Healthcare colleagues donned hard hats and volunteered at the 2019 Carter Work Project build site, including HCA Healthcare’s chief medical officer and president of clinical services, Dr. Jonathan Perlin and affiliate TriStar Health’s chief nursing executive, Velinda Block.

The week kicked off with a special performance at the Ryman Auditorium by Nashville natives, country music stars and Habitat humanitarians Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. “The greatest gift is a home,” Brooks shared during the set. “The only way you can get better than that is if it’s a home right here in Nashville.”

We were excited to hear that a HCA Healthcare colleague was selected by Habitat for Humanity to become to become a homeowner through the Carter Work Project

Curesha Goodall, a charge entry specialist at affiliate TriStar Skyline Medical Center had the chance to work alongside the Former President, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and hundreds of other colleagues to build her home.

Curesha is looking forward to the responsibility of homeownership. Her 13-year-old daughter will soon have a yard to practice her favorite baton and twirl activities in. “Habitat makes sure you are ready to purchase a home. Not just because the numbers say yes,” she said in reference to Habitat’s selection process and home ownership classes.

When asked why she is so excited to own her home, Curesha responded by saying that the feeling of empowerment will not only fulfill her, but she hopes it will teach her daughter that “if you work hard and don’t give up, anything is possible.”

Fast facts: 

• Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has helped 13.2 million individuals and families achieve strength, stability and self-reliance through affordable housing.
• Habitat homebuyers put in hundreds of hours of “sweat equity,” which means they help build their own home and the homes of others in the Habitat for Humanity house building program, or volunteer at a Habitat ReStore. These prerequisite hours may also include classes in personal finances, home maintenance and other relevant topics to help ensure capability for the demands of owning a home.
• Habitat offers homebuyers an affordable mortgage. Those payments are then cycled back into the community to help build more affordable homes.

Get involved

By working together to build stronger communities with Habitat for Humanity, HCA Healthcare fosters our culture of teamwork and cultivates goodwill within the diverse communities that we serve…one home at a time.

We encourage our colleagues to extend our care beyond the walls of our facilities and into our communities. Get involved, learn a new skill, and give families a hand up. Find a Habitat for Humanity volunteer opportunity near you here.

About Habitat for Humanity

Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort on a community farm in southern Georgia. The housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in local communities across all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves.