Capital Area Michigan Works! (CAMW) is working with the Ingham County Land Bank and other area partners to use a $1.2 million grant to retrain workers and rehab five Lansing houses.
The CAMW! YouthBuild Program will provide classroom and on the job training in construction and sustainability for 60 people ages 18-24. Selected students will take residential building classes at Lansing Community College (LCC) while simultaneously getting on-site construction experience.
A construction supervisor will oversee the students as they work on greening and rehabbing five of the Land Bank’s properties. The students will specifically focus on sustainable aspects of construction, working on air sealing, installation and other home upgrades.
“With this program, we hope to prepare young people for the residential energy efficiency market,” says Brindley Byrd, YouthBuild Program project manager. The students will also earn a Green Advantage Environmental Certificate and be introduced to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system, increasing their marketability when they leave the program.
The students will spend time working on academics with Eagle Vision Ministries as most of them will be high school dropouts in need of a GED.
“These are young people who didn’t make it through the system and we’re getting them back on track,” Byrd says. “We need to let them know they’re part of a bigger system.”
The addresses of the first two houses to be renovated are 540 Paris and 551 Emily in Lansing. The other houses will be identified as the program advances.
The 60 selected students will be split into two groups with one starting in the fall and one in the spring. The City of Lansing and the Michigan Laborers’ Apprenticeship and Training Institution are also partnering on the project.
Anyone interested in applying to the program must attend two informational sessions at the CAMW’s Lansing office. The first is at 11a.m., Aug. 19 and the second is at 3 p.m., Aug. 21.
Source: Brindley Byrd, CAMW
Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.
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