Partnership Points Students to Career Path
MVCAP partners with contractors, builders and educators to help create career opportunities in weatherization and construction-related trades. Liberty High School on Keowee Street is a unique recovery school serving ages 15 to 21 on career paths including construction.
The Southwest Hub of the Ohio Weatherization Training Center in downtown Dayton is a partnership between MVCAP and the Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development (COAD). In addition to providing training to other providers across the state, the hub welcomes Liberty High School students who are working to rebuild their paths to success.
Students earn certifications in weatherization tasks, working lead safe and much more. They also learn how to work and become skilled in trades that are in high demand.
Part of Oakmont Education, Liberty offers flexible individualized learning plans and partners with the Department of Labor in Youth Build Dayton. As one of MVCAP’s partners in the Dayton Home Repair Network (DHRN), Liberty sends students through the MVCAP training center and to work on DHRN projects providing them with up to 450 hours of work-based learning, said Dr. Jerry Farley, Vice President of Career Technical Education.
“They can see how much opportunity they have,” said Construction Instructor Guy LaPlante. “This is something they can transfer back to their own house and they see how it helps the community.”
This week, Liberty students are taking three different classes with COAD trainers and hands-on experience in the MVCAP prop house – a 1920s era home outfitted for students of all ages to practice and hone weatherization tasks. After discussing safety and standards in the classroom, they had a chance to try their hands at insulating a wall and repairing holes in drywall.
Although they have a shop at Liberty, the change of scenery and the prop house make a difference, the students said.
“The house makes it feel more like a job site,” said Jayden Mitchell, who wants to be an electrician. “I didn’t even know weatherization was a job.”
Aleeyah Bennett hopes to one day own her own construction company after having grown up with family in the industry. LaPlante said he likes to see more women interested in the industry.
Trainer A.W. Matters emphasized preparation and safety. Weatherization crews check walls and attics for electrical hazards, holes in drywall and more before they begin insulating. If the home was built before 1978, they assume it contains lead paint and employ the appropriate protocols.
Liberty is proud of its students’ high placement rate after graduation and the wide range of opportunities students enjoy working through Youth Build Dayton and with County Corp and Habitat for Humanity, LaPlante said.
“We have more jobs than grads,” Farley said, adding that the partnership with MVCAP is invaluable.
The goal is to eventually have Liberty grads available for jobs with MVCAP. Farley said high school dropouts cost communities as much a $308,000 over their lifetime by needing public supports. In Ohio, an estimated 21,000 dropouts add up to a $7.4 billion impact across the state.
Meanwhile, Liberty has graduated 5,000 students since its founding with an 80% retention rate and an 81% placement rate.
“The business growth means people are getting service faster,” Farley said. “It’s exponentially impactful in making housing more affordable and getting more kids out of poverty.”