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Labor Department Renews Construction Skills Training Program in Nashville

A partnership in Nashville between the Home Builders Institute's Project CRAFT (Community Restitution Apprenticeship-Focused Training) and the Davidson County Drug Court (DC4), the only residential drug court in the country, was recently awarded a one-year extension by the Labor Department that will carry it through 2005.

“We’re pleased that Project CRAFT will help benefit Nashville youth for another year,” said Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), who represents the district in which the DC4 program is based. “It’s good to know this unique demonstration project is proving a national model in helping young people restart their lives.”

“I was delighted to hear of the Labor Department’s decision to give Project CRAFT/Nashville this extension,” said NAHB President Bobby Rayburn, who is a member of the Home Builders Institute Board of Trustees. “It is one more example of how we continue to work with the department to build our nation’s workforce while helping young people start new careers in the construction industry.”

Rayburn helped bring Project CRAFT to his home state of Mississippi earlier this year, where it operates in partnership with the state’s Department of Human Services.

The DC4 CRAFT site was visited last month by Drug Czar John P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, to see how the program is turning around the lives of young drug offenders.

CRAFT students at DC4 are older than students in other CRAFT programs and go through a more intense curriculum that includes mentoring and extensive case management.

During the one-year extension, further research will be conducted to document the success of CRAFT through a comparison of the wages, employment and recidivism rates of its enrollees with their counterparts outside of the program.

Since Project CRAFT was established in 2002 through a grant from the Department of Labor’s Youth Offender Demonstration program, 60 students have received pre-apprenticeship, construction skills training and graduated to industry jobs paying an average starting wage of $8.30 an hour.

For more information on Project CRAFT, e-mail Dennis Torbett at HBI, or call him at 800-795-7955 x8908.

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