A Habitat homeowner for a little over a year, Cora has kept busy with the many facets of Miami Habitat and her Jordan Commons community. She is a member of the Homeowners Association Executive Committee, helps maintain the Jordan Commons Community Center, and has helped organize a very successful National Night Out which earned her a spot on the neighborhood’s Crime Watch team.

Cora is also very involved in her new church: St. John Neumann Catholic Church. Ms. Brown developed friendships with many of the St. John Neumann parishioners when they volunteered to build her home, which the church sponsored. Cora was so inspired by the church’s witness of word and deed that she transferred to the St. John Neumann parish. Cora is actively involved in the outreach ministry at the church, working specifically with Sacred Heart Outreach Center of Homestead. In her spare time Cora and her family help feed the homeless, make thanksgiving baskets and collect clothes and other perishable items for Easter.

Cora Mae is a single mother to sons Valentin (13) and Emmanuel (10). Valentin attends Redlands Middle School and Emmanuel goes to Laura C. Saunders Elementary. Cora says her boys are much happier in their new home and their conduct in school has changed for the better. Cora is a full-time teller at Wachovia Bank.

Before Habitat for Humanity, Cora and her family lived in a housing project in Leisure City. Wanting better for her family Cora responded to a commercial about Habitat and made the phone call that changed her life. A woman of faith, Cora diligently prayed to the Lord about her opportunity with Habitat. Upon learning about her acceptance into the Habitat program, she knew it was the Lord’s doing.