By Allan Benner, The Tribune
WELLAND - It was a grocery store when the building was first constructed in the late 1930s.
In the decades that followed, its large windows were bricked up and the building was transformed into a warehouse for a local electrical supply company.
But now, the old building at the corner of Victoria St. and Garner Ave. is being restored and revitalized by participants of a program that will ultimately call the facility home, says David Young, manager of Niagara Peninsula Homes’ Team ENERGI program.
“It’s a real-world, living classroom,” Young says.
Team ENERGI (Enterprise Niagara for Employment Resources and Green Initiatives) is a Canadian government-funded training program run by Niagara Peninsula Homes, which provides on-the-job training for people interested in learning construction trades while working under the leadership of industry professionals. Normally, the program participants &mdash unemployed young people hired to learn construction trades &mdash work elsewhere in the community, often maintaining and renovating any of Niagara Peninsula Homes’ 2,700 affordable housing units.
But currently, the dozen Team ENERGI participants are working on a project that will become a new hub for all NPH programs &mdash including Team ENERGI itself.
Young says the new facility is needed as a result of the recent growth of NPH.
“NPH has really evolved. Now that we’re running so many programs and moving more into developing various ventures to deal with social enterprise … it’s expanding at such a pace, we realized we needed space to operate out of,” he says.
“This is going to be a hub of innovation programing, reinvestment in skills training.”
Other programs to be offered at the facility include co-operative housing development and management, general contracting and property maintenance, social enterprise and innovation and community resources, and Niagara Women’s Enterprise Centre programs.
He says the facility will also provide a venue where NPH managers can work with other community-based projects, such as the Cordage Green project, a plan to build an off-the-grid housing development in southeast Welland.
The current group of Team ENERGI participants graduate Friday.
Most of them will go on to use the skills they’ve learned working in the construction industry.
Young says about 60% of program graduates find work in the construction trades.
“I love it,” says participant David Houser, 21.
“It’s a great opportunity for everyone. It teaches you everything you need to know.”
The Welland resident on this day is working with Dan Beard, 20, from St. Catharines, installing a window at the building.
Beard says he learned about the program after four years of fruitlessly looking for a job.
“Ever since I’ve been working I’ve loved it. I’ve expanded my education a lot,” he says, adding he’s hoping to find a full-time job after he graduates.
Young says NPH will have to wait for government approval before they can recruit the next group of Team ENERGI participants. In the meantime, they’ll rely on volunteers to continue working on the building in the hope of completing the project in September.
allan.benner@sunmedia.ca
People interested in enrolling in the next Team ENERGI program can contact David Young by e-mailing hrconsultants@cogeco.ca or by calling NPC’s current head office on King St. at 905-788-0166.
More information about the program is available at www.nphcr.ca