It has been a long-standing tradition in Job Point’s YouthBuild that as their skills grow, our students seek to use their knowledge to bless our community. This has included such projects as building dog houses for a local animal shelter, picnic tables and benches for a teen shelter, outdoor games for an unsheltered veterans’ home, and constructing ramps for individuals with changing mobility needs; these modifications ensured these community members could remain in their home, even when they can no longer climb the stairs to the front door.
Earlier this year, we were asked by In2Action (an organization specializing in transitional housing and recovery support for previously incarcerated men) to build four wooden benches for their Re-Entry Opportunity Center.
Eager to serve our community, students got to work immediately Students applied their knowledge from the jobsite to this new furniture project, completing the four wooden benches in less than a week.
On the morning of delivery, we gathered all of the students who had helped with the project to deliver the benches. It took two vans to fit everyone, but we knew it would be worth it. In2Action has a beautiful 4-acre campus close to ours, but hidden down a dead-end side street. It boasts a small lake, a park-like setting and beds for 55 men.
As students exited the vans, they were greeted by the smiling face of Dan Hanneken, the Executive Director, and about a dozen residents from In2Action.
“I just want to thank all of the students for putting the work in to build these. As a non-profit, we often go without things if we can’t get them donated. So, this means a lot to us. Of all the furniture that we have had donated, the benches from Job Point’s YouthBuild are the only ones that haven’t broken over time. These guys are hard on furniture, but those benches are stronger,” Dan said, as the students gathered around him.
While it certainly is true, some of our students have a history of justice involvement; some may have even graced the halls of the same institutions as the men standing before them. Yet for a lot of our students, it was their first time, knowingly, meeting not just one, but a dozen men with a criminal background.
It was a pivotal moment.
Not only were they meeting the beneficiaries of their hard work; they were seeing with their own eyes, people are people, no matter their past. As they unloaded the benches together, they were talking and learning from each other.
If we are going to help shape and guide the future leaders of our community, it is our duty to ensure they know and see all of the people that call it home. These service-learning projects are a vital part of that process. When you put in the work to serve others – especially those who society considers less than – it is a reminder that all people have value and significance within our community.
We are grateful for the opportunity to work alongside other great organizations within our community to serve and uplift all of our neighbors, no matter their past because we are invested in their future.
