Women will be coming together in September to not only help build homes for local families, but to help build a stronger and more stable community.
Habitat for Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region (Habitat PKR) will be hosting its annual Women Build event from September 21 to 24. With breakfast and lunch included, the event will be followed by a cocktail celebration held at the rooftop event space at Euphoria Wellness Spa in Peterborough on September 25 from 7 to 10 p.m.
While the non-profit organization’s Women Build event was held as a retreat weekend in the Haliburton Highlands in previous years, this year participants will be donning their hard hats and picking up a hammer in Norwood where Habitat PKR is currently building three affordable homes for local families.
“We’re going back to our roots with the classic Women Build, which is about getting as many women on the build site as possible,” says Natalie Raponi, Operations General Manager at Habitat PKR. “We’ve got corporate teams, community teams, and we’ve also got availability for individuals who want to come and experience Women Build.”
Women Build is an international Habitat for Humanity initiative that brings people together to celebrate women’s leadership and give women meaningful hands-on experiences while supporting families in the community.
“We know that 50 per cent of our Habitat homeowners are single women, including single mothers, and so we know that there’s a lot of women who are out there who need safe and affordable and decent homes,” Raponi says. “It’s very exciting for us to be women helping women.”
The homes are being built for three families who are already members of the Norwood community. A three-generation family of women, a single mother raising two teenagers, and a single-income family with two young children will soon have access to affordable homeownership.
“The success of a community is not just about who can move in, but about who can actually stay,” says Raponi. “If you want to stay in your community but you can’t stay because housing is not affordable, that’s a tragedy and something we want to address.”
Habitat PKR’s affordable homeownership program requires no down payment and provides mortgages geared to each family’s income, with homeowners contributing 500 volunteer hours, which can include direct work on the build of their home.
Recent research has shown that 80 per cent of Habitat homeowners would not have become homeowners without the affordable homeownership program, while also finding that homeownership resulted in improvements in health, employment, and overall well-being of families.
“These are all things that contribute to making our region a better place to live and a better place to grow,” Raponi says. “That’s something we can all stand behind and be incredibly proud of.”
Each of the single-storey, three-bedroom homes in Norwood is being built with universal design and energy-efficient construction and includes spacious outdoor areas.
Designed by Marshall Design Studio, the homes are made possible by generous community partners including Lifestyle Home Products, which donated the windows, exterior doors, bathroom tubs, and faucets, and Whirlpool Canada, which donated the fridges and stoves. Leon’s Peterborough, Alf Curtis Home Improvements, and the County of Peterborough have also lent their support to make the homes affordable.
Along with giving women an opportunity to participate in a Habitat build, Women Build also provides them with a safe and welcoming space to learn to use power tools while breaking barriers for women in construction. In 2025, only six per cent of tradespeople working in residential construction in Ontario were women.
“Incredible strides have been made to get more women in trades and more women in the construction workforce, but we know that the barriers still exist there,” Raponi says. “Part of that is people not having exposure to seeing other women on build sites and not having the exposure of construction experiences. Part of the global program of Women Build is making it a more comfortable space for women to experience a construction site.”
To do this, Raponi says, site supervisors and Habitat PKR staff will be on site to guide the volunteers and meet them where they’re at — whether or not they’ve ever worn a hard hat or used a power saw before. They will learn to hang drywall, insulate, install siding, and complete a number of other tasks.
“Every year, participants come in thinking this is really overwhelming and leave thinking this is something they could actually do,” she explains. “It also sparks an interest to say ‘Maybe I could tackle something in my own house’ or ‘Maybe I can take a workshop and expand my skillset.’ A big one is when women realize that it might spark something in their own daughters to show this is a viable career option for them.”
Habitat PKR is seeking participation and sponsorship from companies that want to form a team to join Women Build. While the event aims to create more opportunities for women to learn construction skills in a supportive and inclusive environment, everyone is welcome to participate regardless of gender or gender identity.
The event, Raponi says, can be used both as a team-building exercise and to show a company’s values in strengthening the community.
“Habitat for Humanity is about building equity through home ownership, which literally changes generations,” she says. “It’s not a quick fix — it’s playing the long game. When a company is part of Women Build, they are helping to make sure our region is growing and developing, and that people can stay here, grow their families here, and hopefully start their own businesses here.”
Peterborough-based engineering, land use planning, and environmental services firm D.M. Wills is the presenting sponsor of this year’s Women Build, ensuring there are no financial barriers for individuals wanting to take part in Community Build Day, which takes place on Thursday, September 24 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
“It takes a village to build a home,” Raponi says. “There are so many pieces that we need help with, whether that’s financial, gift-in-kind, or rolling up the sleeves to build.”
“It’s always emotional at the end when we pass on the keys to the homeowners. On the one hand, you have the homeowners saying ‘There are people in this community who believe in us enough to invest their time and energy in this way,’ and then you have community members saying ‘We did this together because we care about the place we live in and we care about the development of our region.’ This is something that we can be really proud of.”
Whether you’re coming with your whole team or showing up as an individual, Raponi says you won’t regret it.
“It’s something that really does stay with you. I’ve talked to countless people who have told me about their build 30 years ago, and it’s just so exciting to see that common thread through people’s experience. You really do, at the end of the day, just feel incredibly accomplished. We did something — we contributed in an amazing way to something bigger than ourselves.”
To learn more about Women Build ’26 and how to get involved, visit habitatpeterborough.ca/women-build/.
This branded editorial was created in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
