Under the direction of AmeriCorps VISTA, the 12-man Lowcountry Civic Justice Corps Rebuilds a Family Home with “Green” Features, Ribbon Cutting on Thursday, 1 PM

North Charleston, SC (June 11, 2008) – Some 18 months after her home was destroyed in an electrical fire, Ms. Eartha Breshers of Kent Street in North Charleston will start a new beginning. On Thursday, June 12, the ribbon cutting ceremony for the rebuilt Breshers’ home will be held at 1 PM, on Kent Street in North Charleston. The project was recently completed by the Lowcountry Civic Justice Corps, as the LCJC’s 12-man crew of ex-offenders built the house following the latest “green” building standards, for Ms. Breschers her daughter, and two grandchildren.

“The Breschers story is incredible,” injects Shaniqua Cooper, Resource Developer of the AmeriCorps VISTA program for the Noisette Foundation, which provided workers through the LCJC. “In December 2006, a blast went off on in Mrs. Breshers’ home on Kent Street, which awoke here; later in the night, her grandchild alerted the family that the home was on fire, and they evacuated safely, but the home was a total loss. Since the fire, they have moved into the home of Mrs. Breschers’ late parents. Now their home has been rebuilt, rising from the ashes.”

Homeowners insurance did not pay the entire cost for the loss of the home to fire. At that point, the Lowcountry Civic Justice Corps – in a partnership with the Noisette Foundation – deployed its crews to rebuild the Breschers’ home. With a limited budget, the LCJC used two different crews in the construction process. “There is an affordable housing aspect to this story, in that it’s a green home,” adds Cooper. “The project is designed to conserve energy, reducing the overall expense of running the home.”

The project took approximately a year to be completed, due to the dependence on donated materials, according to Cooper. The Breschers home was built to the latest environmentally-friendly standards for green building, including the use of Energy

Star appliances, and has a number of green features, including the extensive reuse of recycled materials.

The construction crew was aided by AmeriCorps VISTA, a federal program which provides volunteers to civic projects to support those in need throughout the local community. The Reverend George Jenkins Sr., author of From Prison to the Pulpit, oversaw the LCJC crew during the reconstruction of the Breshers’ Home.

For Thursday’s ribbon cutting ceremony, North Charleston City Councilman Michael Brown, Chaplin Eva Smith, and Warden Mildred Hudson will participate in the ribbon cutting celebration. Reverend Jenkins, along with David Snyder of the Noisette Foundation, and Eartha Breschers, will join them in this special event.

LCJC enrollment is voluntary, because each individual ex-offender must choose their own path to a new life. The program works through the service-learning model in which each participant both receives training and gives back to the community. Mentoring opportunities are provided for ex-offenders as participants, and later as mentors to other people released as ex-offenders.

Past service projects for the LCJC include: City Clean Sweep; landscaping of the Danny Jones Complex; assistance in the community clean-up of the Liberty Hill neighborhood; assembling metal buildings for the non-profit Metanoia Foundation, an organization that builds affordable housing in North Charleston; and, landscaping of the Whipper Barony neighborhood entrance.

While Ms. Breshers home is part of a fee-based services that are utilized to help make the program self-sustaining, the LCJC works cooperatively and creatively with the members of the community, in order to ensure that every dollar spent is maximized to its greatest potential. “The work speaks for itself,” says David Snyder of the Noisette Foundation.

For more information on the Lowcountry Civic Justice Corps contact the Noisette Foundation at 843 554-6399.