Missoula high school students, under the direction of Missoula HBA members, build a playhouse while learning fundamental construction skills as part of the association's "Building Futures" program.

Missoula, Mont.-area high school students will build the area’s first student-built home as part of a program by the Missoula Building Industry Association to teach students the fundamentals of residential construction and to help answer the area’s long-term need for qualified construction industry professionals.

The students will be able to build the house through a Challenge/Build/Grow matching grant initiative from the National Housing Endowment. Through the initiative, state and local home builders associations can receive matching grants of up to $5,000 to bolster their education and labor shortage/worker training programs.

The Missoula HBA used the grant initially to create a 10-week “Building Futures” course for area high school students to teach them safety, framing, roofing, window installation, siding, electrical work, assembly and painting.   

As part of the program, the students used their construction skills to craft a playhouse at the local Army Reserve facility.

Once the program was underway, however, the Missoula HBA partnered with the University of Montana College of Technology in Missoula to build a full-sized home.

“Due to the program enhancements through the grant, we have now a partnership with our local high schools and the University of Montana College of Technology to build Missoula’s first student built-house in 2009,” said Sage Grendahl, EO of the Missoula HBA. “The National Housing Endowment truly makes a difference in the lives of today’s youths and strengthens the building industry as a whole.”

As part of the 10-week course, members volunteered as guest speakers and as teachers to train the students and tell them about the job opportunities in the building industry.

“Building homes for the nation is too important a priority to neglect the education and training that will be needed to support the residential construction industry,” said Gary Garczynski, endowment chairman and 2002 NAHB president. “Through the Challenge/Build/Grow matching grant initiative and other grants, the endowment is answering the call by meeting the industry's long-term challenges with bold thinking and action.”

Since Challenge/Build/Grow began in 2001, the endowment has awarded more than $165,000 to state and local associations nationwide to support local education and land use and labor shortages/worker training initiatives and to help build new partnerships at the state and local levels.

For more information about endowment grant or scholarship opportunities, visit www.nationalhousingendowment.org.

	Missoula high school students put the finishing touches on a playhouse as part of a program that will soon focus on creating the area's first student-built home.