Media training for current and future Habitat homeowners

​

​

deserves a decent

place to live.

Habitat for Humanity homeowners are our organization’s best spokespeople. Your stories inspire others to support Habitat’s work in the �United States and around �the world.

Ways to talk about Habitat

• Habitat for Humanity does not give away homes. Habitat works in partnership with homeowners who put in hours of sweat equity to build their home and pay an affordable mortgage.
• Habitat partners with homeowners to prepare future homeowners for the various responsibilities of homeownership, including learning about personal finances, mortgages, maintenance and upkeep of homes, and much more.
• Volunteers, donors and supporters build homes with homeowners, not for homeowners.
• Through financial education and training, Habitat homeowners achieve the strength, stability and independence they need to build a better life for themselves and for their families.
• Habitat for Humanity provides a hand up, not a hand out.

Do not be afraid to

correct a reporter who inaccurately describes you or your process to becoming a homeowner. As long as it is said respectfully, the reporter will appreciate your attempt to correct the inaccuracy.

Interview Techniques

• Be prepared – prepare three messages you want to convey, and always come back to those points. Mock interviews with family and friends are encouraged.
• Be confident – appear confident even if you are nervous. Your confidence adds to your credibility. Remember, no one can tell your story better than you.
• Be an enthusiastic participant – engaging with the reporter, positive energy and an optimistic outlook will make the interview more enjoyable for you and the reporter.
• Be concise – to ensure you get your message across to audiences, keep responses short; sound bites are preferred.
• Be calm – take a deep breath, speak slowly but naturally and avoid “umms” and “uhhs.” It’s okay to pause to formulate your thoughts before speaking.
• Be alert – it is important to be mindful of your body language during an interview: sit up straight, smile, maintain eye contact and avoid fidgeting.
• Be accurate – it is always okay to say “I don’t know” or “I’ll get back to you on that.”

​

Ultimately, the best interviewees are those who speak clearly and succinctly. Know what you want to say and find a way to say it which can easily be understood by the audience.

Possible Interview Questions

• How did you find out about Habitat for Humanity’s homeownership program?
• Tell me what it was like when you got the call that you were accepted into the homeownership program?
• Tell me a little about your current home?
• When you think about where you and your family live now and then where you’ll soon live, what excites you the most?
• I hear that one of the requirements for future homeowners is completing sweat equity. Can you explain what sweat equity is and what that experience has been like for you?
• Can you tell me about the financial training and budget-planning classes you and other homeowners went through?
• Not many people can say they built their home with their own hands, but you can. What does that feel like?
• What does owning a home mean to you?
• What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you’re handed the keys to your home?

​

Remember: Your story �is yours alone to tell. You are not obligated to answer anything that makes you uncomfortable, or answer in a way that you think fits someone else’s narrative. Be clear about what you’re willing to discuss, and what you’d rather not.

Interview Tips:�Dos and Don’ts

DO

• Know your message.
• Highlight key points.
• Communicate clearly.
• Be engaging and likeable.
• Keep your cool; don’t be provoked.
• Set boundaries.

​

DON’T

• Assume you are off the record.
• Over answer; respond then stop.
• Lie or speculate.

​

​

Interview Tips:�Habitat Terminology

Use this terminology when talking about Habitat Homeownership

​

• Organization: Use the name Habitat for Humanity of Tuscaloosa or Habitat Tuscaloosa.
• Homeowner/Future Homeowner/Homebuyer: A person or family who purchases a home through Habitat, requiring them to meet eligibility criteria, including a demonstrated need for safe and affordable housing and the ability to repay the mortgage. 
• Sweat Equity: A core concept where homeowners contribute hundreds of hours of their own labor to build their home or help build for others.
• Affordable Mortgage: A low-cost, interest-free or low-interest home loan that homeowners pay back over time, with payments contributing to a revolving fund that helps build more homes. 
• Partnering: The cooperative relationship between the homeowner, Habitat, and the community, where everyone works together to create decent housing. 

​

​

​

​

Interview Tips:�What to Wear for On-Camera Interviews

• Avoid wearing patterned clothes, especially stripes and checks. These can cause moving lines on screen.
• Instead wear solid colors but avoid black, white and red because these colors affect exposure.
• It's also best to steer clear of very bright colors, like hot pink, as this is too distracting.
• If you know it's a seated interview, don't wear short skirts in case the seat is low and your clothes ride up. You don't want to feel self-conscious and therefore be distracted.
• Wear neat and comfortable clothing - you don't want to have to readjust every few seconds.

​

​

Final interview tip: enjoy yourself! Each interview is a celebration of your hard work and dedication to secure safe and stable housing for you and your family.

​

What an accomplishment!

Scenarios:�Spot the problem

For each scenario, identify the problem and explain how it can be corrected. Refer to past slides for assistance.

• A homeowner wears his favorite shirt to his interview – it is a checkered red and black shirt.
• During an interview, the reporter mentions that Habitat for Humanity is giving the future homeowner a home.
• The reporter gets a very important fact about the homeowner wrong during the interview, but the homeowner doesn’t want to be rude and correct them.
• Throughout the interview, the future homeowner is slouched down in their chair and isn’t making eye contact with the reporter.
• A reporter asks a question that makes the homeowner very uncomfortable. She doesn’t want to answer but feels obligated to.
• A future homeowner takes five minutes responding to a reporter’s question.
• The reporter asked a question the future homeowner did not know the answer to, so the homeowner decided to lie and make something up.

​

​

​

Possible Interview Questions

• How did you find out about Habitat for Humanity’s homeownership program?
• Tell me what it was like when you got the call that you were accepted into the homeownership program?
• Tell me a little about your current home?
• When you think about where you and your family live now and then where you’ll soon live, what excites you the most?
• I hear that one of the requirements for future homeowners is completing sweat equity. Can you explain what sweat equity is and what that experience has been like for you?
• Not many people can say they built their home with their own hands, but you can. What does that feel like?
• What does owning a home mean to you?
• What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you’re handed the keys to your home?
• What would you like to say to the sponsor or volunteers who are helping build your home?

​

​

Please use this Google form to answer the possible interview questions.

Habitat Tuscaloosa may use all or part of your responses for marketing.

​