Program teaches young adults construction, fights blight 

Program teaches young adults construction, fights blight

   
DETROIT (AP) – A group of young adults is learning about the construction trade and helping Detroit in its battle against neighborhood blight.
The Detroit Free Press reports (http://on.freep.com/1KYgzF1 ) Sunday that they have spent the summer securing doors and windows at 23 vacant school buildings.
The work is being done under the city’s Opportunity Detroit Youth & Trades Board-Up Program which started in June. Workers are ages 18 to 24. They earn $9.50 per hour.
Project director Rodney Prater says the “main purpose was to train people who otherwise might have never seen a saw or a hammer, with a long-term goal that they become qualified or prequalified apprentices in the building trades.”
City and federal funding pays $850,000 to run the program. Grants are being sought to keep the project going.
Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com
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