Current & Past Articles » Headline News

ITALUS partners with Habitat for Humanity on Caledon home build

November 5, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By KATHRYN FRASER

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On Oct. 28, ITALUS partnered with Habitat for Humanity GTA as part of their Build Days program to help build houses for a family in need in Caledon and other communities. 

ITALUS is an organization focusing on the next generation and bringing Italian heritage back into the community across the GTA.

Daniela Sfara is the founder and CEO of ITALUS and hopes that her organization can inspire the next generation to continue to carry Italian heritage.

“The next generation led of Italian heritage that’s carrying forward Italian cultural heritage, so we’re regenerating Southern Italy’s cultural heritage,  with and for its next generation,” says Sfara.

“Because the diaspora of the next generation lives across the world, we are global first, and digital first, and in person second,” says Sfara.

The organization was officially launched on June 1 of this year, and Sfara believes that this workshop with Habitat for Humanity aligns strongly with ITALUS, so she became interested in getting her team involved.

“I’ve loved what Habitat for Humanity has been about for a very long time, and I’ve always known that it deserves a lot more attention. When ITALUS came to be — and we’ve only launched June 1st — so we’re still very young, and everything that we do has to have a very heavy and positive impact forward into the community and not just our community, but generations,” says Sfara. 

“For us, everything that we do has to make sense and align perfectly with the powerful positive alignment. Our stewards of ITALUS, which are the next generation, carry a cultural heritage. I thought Habitat for Humanity works perfectly because we can gather the purpose of what habitat does, while we honour the very people who came here to build our roads, our homes, our communities, and greatly thank our previous Italian generations with the coalition of Habitat for Humanity.”

For Sfara, she hopes that workshops such as these will be able to not only inspire the generations but be a reminder of those that have come before them. 

“ITALUS is now the bridging of the gap and it’s wonderful because we can inspire the next generation to come in and do stuff. It’s a nice way for us to come together and step into literally the boots of those who’ve done this before us and say, thank you for what you’ve given us. It’s now our turn to carry it forward, for our future generations,” says Sfara.

This is the first time that ITALUS and Habitat for Humanity GTA have partnered together. However, this house-building workshop is a recurring program in which organizations and other groups are able to sign up and participate in a one-day workshop where they build homes and learn more about Habitat for Humanity’s initiative.

Throughout the day, ITALUS’ team of 13 participants worked on building walls that will become part of Habitat Homes across the GTA. The donation of the group’s time and work toward building the homes helps reduce overall costs.

The work done by ITALUS not only turned a day of volunteering into something tangible but is an example of how corporate partners can help make Habitat GTA build homes for those in the community.

For Sfara, it was important to not only have her team participate in this event but also for the sponsors to have a better understanding of what ITALUS wants to work towards.

“So, half of us here are stewards and the other half are our sponsors. We encourage our sponsors to come out and participate which is just wonderful. They have taken the time to not only, support us with their wallets, but now be here physically with us. build with us so they can see what their labour of love is going toward. Speaking with them today and asking how they feel about being here, they get a much deeper perspective of habitat for humanity is and does and what they represent, and they get a much stronger feel for what ITALUS does,” says Sfara.

Kathy Brett is the manager of the Build Gift-In-Kind Program and has been helping to lead these build days to provide housing for those in Brampton, Caledon, Durham, Toronto and York Region. Roughly 15 people can sign up to be a group, and there is no experience needed, as there is plenty of walk-through training throughout the day before having the opportunity to have a hands-on experience and build.

“Typically, what we used to do is have the volunteers come on the construction site, and they could be doing anything, they could be moving gravel, drywall insulation, vapour barrier, but what we found was that to really propel and meet the need of the pace that we’re growing we need to have a modular approach to our building,” says Brett. 

“And that’s not a new concept. There are companies that do that, but we have the labour. So, by having the donation, having the labour, and then just having to pay the framers to erect the building, it saves us a ton of time and money. We have very tight quality control. Our crew leaders and our volunteers help guide our corporate groups through the build day. They’re all very experienced. So, there’s a very tight quality control that happens on the site.”

Habitat for Humanity’s goal is to build 2,000 homes by 2035 and still have spots available for groups and organizations looking to get involved.

For Sfara, this build day is only the beginning, and she hopes to be able to be back again with ITALUS to build even more.

“It’s not just about coming out for Habitat for Humanity. It’s not just about coming out to do a build, and it’s not just about ITALUS with its multi-generational sponsors, which is amazing. They all love what we’re doing. They love the purpose, and for them, this is exactly what’s needed, because this is how everything’s been built for us, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t continue that way,” says Sfara. 

“So, for us, it’s just simple, and we’re absolutely going to make a much bigger mark next year, probably with a one-week build, possibly, is what we would aim for, but no guarantees yet.”

Sfara would like to thank all the sponsors that have supported ITALUS and helped be part of the Build Days with ITALUS and Habitat for Humanity: Michael Salerno Realty, Veneto Costruzioni, Advance Mortgages, KOR Construction, Vera Filice Real Estate, Tedescom Infrastructure, and DuRock Alfacing International.

Readers Comments (0)