EUGENE, Ore. — Students by the thousands have the opportunity to build their construction skills and build homes for those in need before ever leaving high school.
Team Oregon Build launched in March, and it all started with a desire to help families recover from wildfires.
The Holiday Farm Fire ripped through the McKenzie River Valley in the fall of 2020 leaving behind destroyed properties and displaced families.
"We had people who wanted to help and support these families, and one of the projects we engaged with was called Sheds of Hope," said Jesse Quinn, director of community engagement, Lane Workforce Partnership. "So the students started building sheds for families impacted by wildfire. Through this, we built rapport. We realized that we could evolve and take this program even further which led to the transitional housing units."
It birthed Constructing a Brighter Future through the Lane Workforce Partnership and most recently, Team Oregon Build where 3800 students across Oregon put hammers to nails each week to build transitional housing, storage sheds, and other structures to get the houseless on their feet.
Dozens of Lane County students are in on the building, and although the program started with high school students, tweens are taking a wack at the construction trade building things like flower beds at Briggs Middle School.
"A baseline of skills is how we started the program, and now we're doing full projects of framing, and we learned how to use a lot of hand tools and circular saws," said Laila Lumen, junior, Churchill High School.
"Even if I don't end up going into the construction trades, which I think I'm going to, I can still use all the knowledge I'm learning like building my own house or adding on to my house," said Conor McIver, junior, North Eugene High School.
These 4J participants work out of the Lane Community College site and will have a brand new building to build in come November, but they're working with more than tools according to math, English, and career technical education teacher Peter Wiebe.
"Measuring various distances, or it's critically important to make sure your doorway is square, and there's math behind all of that as well as cost, so we do some classroom instruction in mathematics. For the language arts, they're learning a lot of communication skills," said Wiebe.
Students can walk away from the one and two-year tracks a few steps ahead of the competition with their portfolio of builds and certifications.
"We have them get their OSHA 10 safety certifications. We also have some industry recognized credentials that they can earn in safety in construction and framing," said Wiebe.
"It's a good back up plan, but if I'm 10 years down the line, and I'm like, man I want a new patio, I can say alright, I'll make it myself," said William Dimitrilegorreta-Pina, senior, North Eugene High School.
One transitional home, with electricity but with no bathroom or running water, costs about $4400.
Those homes go to Everyone Village in Eugene.
Thanks to $2.2 million expansion from the Department of Education earlier this year, the program can take care of costs like these and continue to expand to middle schools.
Thirty-nine schools across the state participate in the program.
Quinn tells us students working with Team Oregon Build have a 90 percent graduation rate.
For information on Team Oregon Build, click here.