Additional Volunteer Information

Background Checks

Beginning March 1, 2021, Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity will require that every volunteer over the age of 18, goes through an annual background check before participating in any volunteer activities. We are making this change to our volunteer policies to ensure everyone remains safe and protected.

Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity has contracted Sterling Talent Solutions to conduct background checks and only Sterling has permission to view results. No Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity staff members will view results and results will be kept strictly confidential. These background checks will be conducted through our Volunteer Portal where you will be directed to Sterling Talent Solutions to complete your background check. Background checks will take approximately 2 hours to receive results but in rare cases, can take up to 48 hours. All volunteers, regardless of age, are required to register using the Volunteer Portal prior to volunteering.

While we have not conducted background checks in the past, we want to assure you that we are implementing this policy with everyone’s best interest and safety in mind. We are fortunate to have not had past safety issues and would like to continue this positive trend by tightening up our policies going forward. We are so grateful for your support and look forward to furthering our Habitat mission together.

Click here to view Sterling Talent Solutions Background Check Privacy & Information Security Guide.

Background Check Qualification Criteria

We welcome volunteers in need of completing community service hours for work, school, by court-order, or for benefits. A previous conviction may disqualify an applicant from participating in Dallas Area Habitat volunteer activities. You cannot volunteer with Habitat if you are doing community service of offenses related to theft, aggression, adult crimes involving minors, arson, weapons, or forgery. This list is not exhaustive and is for illustrative purposes only. For more information, see our Criminal Background Check Policy.

Inclement Weather Policy

Please note: our inclement weather policy affects outdoor volunteer activities only. Indoor volunteer activities will be canceled if Dallas Independent School Districts closes due to inclement weather. For safety reasons, if your local school district closes due to inclement weather, please do not volunteer.

Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity’s policy is to wait to make any cancellation decisions until the morning of a scheduled activity. There are, however, times when we will do it in advance if a volunteer group for a given day expresses a preference to reschedule the day earlier to provide more advance notice to their volunteers.
On those occasions where the weather forecast or site conditions suggest the possibility of improved conditions later in the day, we may elect to delay the start time for a given day to 10AM so we may continue to monitor conditions.

Notification Process

1. Construction department assesses conditions and forecasts and makes determination to cancel or delay.
2. Habitat staff members are notified.
3. Habitat staff members notify coordinators by phone call of all sponsor volunteer groups.
4. All registered volunteers receive an email notification from the Volunteer Portal. If they have opted in, registered volunteers will also receive a text message notification.

ReStore Age Restrictions

• Under 16 years of age: not allowed on-site during any phase of construction
• 16–17 years old: allowed to participate in construction, but cannot get on the roof or operate power tools; must have one adult supervisor over 21 per 5 youth.
• 18+ years old: allowed to participate in all construction activities