Shellie Layne knows that learning how to repair things around the house can give women confidence to fix other things in their lives too. She experienced this firsthand when an unanticipated divorce left her with little income, and she was forced to take on home improvement projects on her own.
These experiences inspired her to launch the Women Under Construction Network. Since the organization’s launch in 2014 and incorporation in 2015, the WUC Network has served thousands of women in the Greater Birmingham area who were struggling to maintain their homes. The WUC Network does this through several different programs including Power Tool Socials, the virtual workshop series Toolbox Tuesdays, programs for youth, and the What I Learned at Home (WILAH) Project, which empowers women in public housing take pride in their homes. Each program seeks to help women repair their homes and rebuild their lives.
But Layne is always seeking new ways to serve. After COVID hit, she began to pay close attention to the home repair needs of elderly women, especially those who lived alone in impoverished neighborhoods. The REPAIR Angels program was born. This initiative is powered by ANGEL Contractors, trade professionals and apprentices who perform critical home repairs, and ANGEL Companions, volunteers who conduct home repair classes and provide companionship to combat depression and loneliness among the elderly.
In 2023, the WUC Network received a $15,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to support the REPAIR Angels project. We spoke with Layne to learn more about the great work the organization is doing through this program.
Tell us more about the REPAIR Angels program and how it came to be.
REPAIR is an acronym standing for “Rebuilding Elderly Pride And Independence Restoration.” We wanted to get some contractors together to help do some repairs for elderly women who would not be able to do it for themselves. We initially did it as part of our annual Building Hope: 21 Days of Kindness campaign. But it was so successful, and we got such an influx of calls, that we decided to make it an official program.
Within REPAIR Angels you have a few other initiatives to help seniors. Tell us more about those.
One is called Safe at Home, through which we provide education as well as things like nonskid mats for their bathrooms and kitchens, and we provide them with grabbers so that they can pick things up easily.
There’s also DIY, or Do-It-Yourself Live. We have community members of all ages come to these monthly repair classes and learn how to do things for their homes themselves. We’re having a larger influx of women who are over 62 coming to that program.
The whole REPAIR Angels program is an effort to help the elderly to age in place. Most elderly folks don’t want to leave their communities, I don’t care how blighted they are. And we have found that in many cases, statistics will tell you that elderly, particularly those of color, when they lose their independence and have to go to nursing homes, they decline quickly.
What are some of the Greater Birmingham communities that you serve through these programs?
We have repaired homes all over the city of Birmingham and the outskirts. We’ve done work in Midfield, Ensley, Brighton, the Oporto-Madrid area, and many others.
How has the grant you received from the Community Foundation helped you grow the REPAIR Angels program?
The Community Foundation has been instrumental in helping us to serve this population. It has helped us with supplies, tools, paint, and contractors. We’ve been able to replace heating and air conditioning units and repair roofs — large ticket items that the elderly could not afford to do on their own. There’s such a need and the Community Foundation has made a major impact on this program and has helped us to do more outreach than we ever could.
Are there women the WUC Network has served whose stories stand out to you?
Recently we helped Ms. Boston who was caring for her husband before he passed away from cancer. She had no water pressure in her home at all and she didn’t know why. Basically, they were living off a drip of water out of every faucet. Our coordinator came over and worked with her. We brought a plumber in and learned it was a larger issue. We were able to work with the city, with Birmingham Water Works, and other entities to be able to get water throughout her home.
And there’s Ms. Dunagan. She’s in her late 90s. She had five children, and she’s outlived them all. Where she lives, she doesn’t have many neighbors near her and the area itself is impoverished. But we were able to work with contractors to put lighting all around her house. She said, “They lit me up like a Christmas tree and now I can feel safe at home.”
What’s next for REPAIR Angels?
We’ve been doing the WILAH Project — What I Learned At Home — in collaboration with the Housing Authority Birmingham District and they have now asked us to do a program specifically for seniors in public housing to be able to bring them hope, home repair, and help. They don’t own their homes but there are some things that they’re able to do as it relates to repairing or decorating and it gives them a sense of independence.