CLEVELAND — A Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio (BGCNEO) career readiness program is partnering with Habitat for Humanity to help more than a dozen teens build skills as they rehab homes. Shaquira Johnson, the Chief Revenue Officer for BGCNEO says there are 15 teens participating this year.
“They’re going to be working over the next 10 weeks and they are in houses throughout the city of Cleveland. They’re going to be doing drywall and they’re going to learn how to paint,” says Johnson.
Da’velle Adams is a rising Bowling Green State University freshman with goals of majoring in Construction Management. As the teens get paid to prime and paint, Adams says he’s gaining a skill set that can help him professionally and personally.
“Learn how to become more proficient with my hands and then say my mom needs some help, I can help her around the house,” says Adams.
It’s not just construction skills they’ll learn with this program, it’s also working with a team, communicating, mastering time management and more.
“Some kids may decide to go into the construction field, and some may not. I think the benefit is that they have the opportunity to really learn essential skills that they can use for life,” says Johnson.
While they work to make sure a Cleveland family has a nice, safe, updated home, the teens realize while they may be working on the ceiling, their potential has no ceiling.
“It makes me feel happy, glad, and delighted that I can say I built a house, I helped renovate a house,” says Adams.
This is the fourth summer for the Building Great Futures Program. It's become so popular with some teens that they’re doing it for a second summer in a row.
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