The house might be tiny, but the work behind it is going to make an impact in the lives of thirteen young people. Your Choice Homes Inc. and the Yorkton Tribal Council worked together for the Construction Worker 101 project, which saw 13 First Nations youth take on the challenge of building a tiny house over six weekends, learning the construction trade in the process.
Jason Leonzio, logistics at Your Choice Homes, worked with the kids as they built the house from scratch. He notes that the group grew stronger as the house began to take shape.
“At first most of the group was standoffish, but now between the 13 of them they’ve managed to be friends, which is amazing. If you’ve been to high school, it doesn’t normally work that way, and building the house brought them together and made them understand that no matter where you come from you are able to do this.”
Davis Keepeness was one of the graduates from the program. It’s the first time that he has been involved in construction, and he is proud of what he has accomplished with his classmates, who quickly became his new friends.
“I’m happy that I built this house, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The program has also influenced Keepeness’ future, as he wants to work towards a career in construction and continue to build homes.
Keepeness and the other students are an example of why the Yorkton Tribal Council supported the project says George Cote, Chief of the Cote First Nation. The goal is more than building this specific home, but to get people building in their home communities.
“Housing is a major issue in our communities. We wanted to do something for our children. We want to build houses in our future, so what better way than to show them?”
Cote notes that while the kids came from different places, uniting behind a common goal has been a positive for their communities.
“There are six different communities that brought these kids together, and there are thirteen of them. They bonded, they built relationships, they achieved skills in working and time management... It gave them an open mind. Some of these kids, they want to go into housing now, they didn’t realize how much goes into a house until they were on the job site and building a house for themselves.”
They want to do more projects, and Cote can see more projects like this on area reserves. It’s all part of an overall goal to build in their communities.
“We used to build houses ourselves, and would like to do it again.”
The plan for the program in general is to see it in more communities. Leonzio notes that there are public schools interested in doing a tiny home project like the one they did with YTC.
“We see it every day, growing more and more... I’m really happy to see it progressing, and I’m looking forward to a lot more students going through this program.”
