Our Tiny Home has been sold and a celebration was hosted by The Centre for Skills Development & Training on Saturday November 24. See the video below from the event.
The story below was first published in January 2018.
The Centre for Skills Development & Training, and the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar have launched a new Tiny Homes program to benefit disadvantaged communities, workers, and the environment.
Tiny home communities are proving to be a viable affordable housing solution in many parts of the world. In Canada, the tiny house movement addresses several pressing social issues: access to affordable housing, environmental impact, and now, thanks to the new innovative Tiny Homes program from The Centre for Skills Development & Training, even th employment skills gap.
The new program, launched in partnership with the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar, will provide program participants with valuable new employment skills, while minimizing the waste-to-landfill and carbon emissions created during the training process. In addition, the fully weatherized, CSA approved, all-season tiny homes built by The Centre will, upon completion, be dispatched to disadvantaged and indigenous communities around the country, or soldwith the proceeds being used for a range of other good charitable causes.
"We really feel that this program addresses multiple issues now affecting communities around the country" said Rotary Club executive Lauri Asikainen. "Not only will it provide valuable skills training for students, but the homes they create have tremendous value, not just as social housing, but as green living spaces, or for people downsizing, adventure traveling, vacationing, or just trying to lead a simpler life."
According to Senior Program Coordinator Ellen Faraday, this new program will also make good use of The Centre's resources, reducing the construction training program's waste-to-landfill and carbon emissions. "Before the Tiny Homes initiative, students in our residential construction program would build partial walls or mock houses that would need to be torn down and sent to landfill at the end of each course. Now, these walls will be combined and mounted on a mobile platform to create a modular, movable, permanent home for someone in need."
Without the help of the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar, GEM Windows and Doors, Tukstra Lumber and Rush Trailers, this program never would have gotten off the ground", said The Centre's Manager of Marketing & Communications Dean Lorenz. "We're privileged to have these amazing partners involved and that they saw the same potential in this program that we did. It really is a win-win for we everybody".
Above members of The Centre receive the cheque for $10,000 presented by the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar at the Tiny Home Inauguration.