Apprentices enrolled in Associated Builders and Contractors’ (ABC)
Golden Gate Chapter put their training to good use by volunteering to provide much-needed repairs and updates at
Shepherd’s Gate, a Livermore, Calif., resource center for women displaced by abuse, financial hardship and addiction. The center also offers training and interviewing skills to help women rejoin the workforce.
In addition to following the
National Center for Construction Education and Research curriculum, which involves 160 hours per year of classroom time combined with hands-on skills training, students in the ABC chapter’s five state-approved apprenticeship programs (electrical, carpentry, painting, plumbing and construction craft labor) gain valuable knowledge of their craft by participating in chapter community service projects.
James Garcia, a graduate-turned-instructor of the Golden Gate Chapter’s painting apprenticeship program, discovered the Shepherd’s Gate facility and saw it as an opportunity to improve a valuable resource for the local community while giving his apprentices practical experience in the field.
The students performed the renovations in a series of projects spanning several weeks. During their first trip to Shepherd’s Gate, the carpentry apprentices poured concrete behind an emergency shelter and put up a new fence.
A few weeks later, apprentices repainted the kitchen, the family and recreation areas, and the prayer room, as well as residence halls. Their efforts included drywall installation and retexturing the hallway and ceilings.
All of the work was completed in time for Shepherd’s Gate’s open house in May. The outreach program saved the crisis center thousands of dollars in construction costs, and gave the women and children who stay at the facility renovated housing, meeting rooms and classrooms to help them get back on their feet.
“To have a nice place like Shepherd’s Gate to call home is transformational for so many of the women and children who come to us. They have literally never lived somewhere so safe, let alone so beautiful,” says Jennifer Harp, the center’s marketing director. “To see volunteers come in and help them care for the place they call home, in such a sacrificial way, is such a blessing.”
The ABC Golden Gate Chapter plans to have more students return to Shepherd’s Gate in the near future to construct planter boxes for a vegetable garden.