Project CRAFT Grads Cap Decade of Success in Orlando
Bill Paul, president of the Phoenix Construction and Development Company in Tampa, Fla., and a member of the Home Builders Institute (HBI) Board of Trustees, gave commencement remarks to the 17 members of the newest graduating class of Orlando’s Project CRAFT (Community, Restitution, Apprenticeship-Focused Training) program.
“We’ve had 10 very successful years of helping adolescents turn their lives around,” Paul said of the Orlando program. “These graduates are the latest in a long line to use their HBI training at this aftercare program to help them overcome adversity and find good jobs in the construction industry.” The U.S. Department of Labor has estimated that the housing industry will create more than 1 million new jobs over the next decade. In thank-you letters to HBI, students expressed their gratitude for the changes the program has brought to their lives. “When I first got here I was a little delinquent who was in and out of jail doing all types of stupid things that I now realize were foolish,” wrote one student. “Thank you for not kicking me out and giving me a chance to complete the program, but most of all, thank you for changing me and helping me get my life in the right direction.” Five members of the graduating class also participated in a newly implemented student government that enabled them to make suggestions about the program. Partners in the program, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and Orange County Public Schools work along with such industry supporters as the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando to ensure that students are offered the most comprehensive education and services. Orlando’s CRAFT students completed more than 4,000 service hours on community building projects last year, providing them with needed on-site construction experience and saving taxpayers thousands of dollars. Orlando is one of four Project CRAFT sites in Florida; other programs operate in Dallas; Jackson, Miss.; Jamesburg, N.J.; and Nashville, Tenn. Since its inception in 1994, CRAFT has trained more than 2,000 at-risk youths. For more information on Project CRAFT/Orlando, e-mail Dennis Torbett at HBI, or call him at 800-795-7955 x8908. | 
