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Chicago Carpenters Donate $100,000 for Educational CD
The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters is continuing its support of NAHB’s award-winning education CD-ROM, Building Homes of Our Own in 2006, with a $100,000 donation. This is the second installment of a three-year, $300,000 commitment from the carpenters to help bring home building concepts into mainstream education at the middle and high school level.
A unanimous decision of the group’s Labor Management Committee, the carpenters reiterated their dedication to the advancement of a residential construction industry that promotes skilled craftsmen and creates opportunities across the broad spectrum of communities.
Building Homes of Our Own is an education simulation program that transforms students into entrepreneurial home builders — taking them through the phases of building, from finance and budgeting to lot selection, design, construction, and marketing and sales. Students learn how to navigate regulations and other pitfalls along the way and come away from the program not only with a grasp of key academic concepts in math, science, social studies and language arts, but also more knowledge of the myriad careers that make up the home building industry.
Last year’s $100,000 grant allowed NAHB to produce a new network version of the program, which was so popular that teachers exhausted the 5,000-disk supply just three months after it was released.
This year, NAHB will produce additional CD-ROMs, which are free to teachers and NAHB members, as well as a high school teaching guide and a career day presentation for members.
Students, teachers and parents have praised the program’s innovative approach. “This program reinforces hands-on learning and truly engages students,” said Cindy Herrera, a middle school teacher in Tennessee. “The students, parents and even the community have seen the benefits of Building Homes of Our Own. I have developed an awesome unit on the home building process and it seems to be one of the favorite units of study.”
NAHB National Vice President Marsha Elliott, a Chicago builder, secured the support from the carpenters during her term as chairman of the Public Affairs Committee in 2004.
So far, nearly 39,000 CD-ROMs have been distributed by request to educators, reaching an estimated audience of 3 million teachers, students and parents. Launched in September of 2002, Building Homes of Our Own was made possible with support from the National Housing Endowment and Freddie Mac.
For more information, e-mail Kym Kilbourne at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8447.
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