Project CRAFT
HBI's Project CRAFT (Community Restitution and Apprenticeship Focused Training) program has been teaching court-involved youth ages 15-19 marketable residential construction trades skills that help them become wage earning citizens, instills a sense of confidence and excitement about their futures and provides them with viable career path options.
Once graduates earn their industry-recognized pre-apprenticeship certification that includes green building and weatherization skills, Project CRAFT helps them find jobs, continue their education or join the military.
HBI partners with local school districts, state departments of juvenile justice and children and family services and city governments to implement Project CRAFT programs in Florida, Connecticut and Maryland.
Journey-level trades instructors teach HBI’s Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training (PACT) curriculum in carpentry, electrical wiring, facilities maintenance, landscaping, painting and plumbing, depending on the program.
HBI's Florida Project CRAFT programs include residential-based sites at the Avon Park Youth Academy, Avon Park; Bristol Youth Academy, Bristol; Okeechobee Intensive Halfway House, Okeechobee Girls Academy and Okeechobee Youth Development Center, Okeechobee; and the Walton Youth Development Center in DeFuniak Springs; and at community-based sites in Orlando and Tampa.
HBI Project CRAFT in Connecticut is a residential-based site at Mt. St. John’s Academy in Deep River, and the Project CRAFT in Maryland is at a community-based site in Baltimore.
Did you know that?
- HBI Project CRAFT Avon Park Youth Academy students have installed solar panels on academy buildings to reduce its carbon footprint.
- Students at HBI Project CRAFT Baltimore have renovated Family League of Baltimore City office space into a state-of-the-art conference room and built a bench for a presiding Baltimore City juvenile judge. Baltimore, Md.
- HBI Project CRAFT Okeechobee Girls Academy is the only juvenile justice residential program in Florida that provides career and technical education to young women. Because their lengths of stay are shorter, the students earn a Construction Exploratory Certificate and points they can apply to proving they have mastered skills required of a specific U.S. Department of Labor job title at their home schools.
For more information about starting a HBI Project CRAFT program in your community, contact John Hattery at 202-607-3397.