BuildStrong Academy News

“Sandra Stevens made the transition three years ago from working in retail to becoming a full-time construction estimator. After completing the hands-on free training at BuildStrong Academy Denver Campus, she launched her dreams, even being promoted twice in three years.”

Check out the Academy’s 2024 Annual Report!

“Colorado currently needs 33,500 infrastructure and construction workers… Denver’s BuildStrong Academy is working to ensure students who graduate are ready for immediate jobs in the industry.” 

“Colorado needs to build more housing. It also needs the people to build more housing. Denver’s BuildStrong Academy is trying to bridge the gap between those two needs.” 

“I hope your minds are spinning on what good each of you can do to ‘pay it forward’—in ways big and small—that improve communities. Each act toward serving the public good compounding on itself, gaining momentum and changing lives. And it can all start today.” 

Labor Day was intended as a holiday to pay tribute to the workers of this country. But today, most companies use this day to maximize profits with sales and discounts which take from its importance. On September 5, instead of discounts, Red Wing Shoes is going to donate 100% of their profits to the very workers who help build this country. Together, we can reclaim the true meaning of Labor Day.

YourHub
During the turbulent times of COVID, BuildStrong Academy of Denver (formerly Colorado Homebuilding Academy) has erected pop-up construction training centers in local communities. The most recent, in the Reunion development in Commerce City, is helping train 25 people who are learning construction skills in the hopes of securing a job in the booming homebuilding industry.

CNBC
The coronavirus pandemic hit Joshua Copeland and his industry hard. The 38-year-old chef contracted Covid-19 last spring, losing his sense of taste and smell, which are critical to anyone in his line of work.

FOX31
At the Colorado Homebuilding Academy in Denver the first thing you will hear are the sounds of construction. For 31-year-old Gabriel Lara, they are the sounds of success.

Our Community Now
Stay “essential” by taking this free online course in construction.

The Gazette
In high school, nobody discussed the trades as a career, Persephone Parker says.

Our Community Now
Colorado construction workers are always needed—pandemic or no pandemic.

Colorado Builder
Now’s a good time for builders to evaluate training for themselves and their crews

Denver Post
Industry, job seekers hope home building can lead way in economic recovery

Results Lab
We are all living in uncertain times. The current situation is chaotic, and no one knows what this means for our organizations and the communities we serve. Existing organizational models have been disrupted, and we need a way to navigate through this.

Builder and Developer
BuildStrong Academy of Denver (formerly Colorado Homebuilding Academy) is offering two 2-week online “Basics in Electrical” courses to offer students a unique way to learn the basics of electricity which will help them secure jobs now or post COVID.

Vincent Salandro, Remodeling
The organization has shifted its 16-session boot camp program into a three-week, online program.

Erin Shine, Founder at Attainable Home
A few months back I was looking for different ways to sharpen my knowledge of home building and construction skills in order to help to build more attainable housing here in the Denver metro area.

North Alabama Homebuilding Academy
One month after opening, the North Alabama Homebuilding Academy in Huntsville, Ala., already had more than 440 students on a waiting list for the free, hands-on training aimed at opening the door to a career in the building trades.

DoBizLo
CBS Denver Showcased Colorado Homebuilding Academy’s Career Options for Homeless & Low-Income Population. Colorado Homebuilding Academy recognizes Denver’s need for skilled labor with a multitude of construction projects all over the metro area.

Denver Business Journal
“I’m the poster child for opportunity in the industry.” That’s what Cheryl Schuette, acting director of BuildStrong Academy of Denver (formerly Colorado Homebuilding Academy), said of her journey through the homebuilding industry. She began as a secretary at Village Homes and eventually worked her way up to chief operating officer and president.

The Denver Post
The home construction industry has created the Colorado Homebuilding Academy, where young adults are informed of careers in the skilled trades that don’t require a college degree but pay well…

Builder
Builders like Pat Hamill, who founded BuildStrong Academy of Denver (formerly the Colorado Homebuilding Academy) to reinvest in the training and education of new talent in the home building community. The Academy offers hands-on learning, classroom teaching and real-life experience with the ultimate goal of job placement and ongoing support for its students.

ABC 15 Arizona
Right now, homebuilders around the country are desperately looking for workers to help them complete projects. There are nearly 200,000 construction jobs available right now across the nation, up 81 percent in just two years.One homebuilder is taking matters into its own hands.

CGTN
Class is in session at the Colorado Homebuilding Academy. 20 students, chainsaws in hand, are halfway through an eight-week construction skills bootcamp. Michael Smith is in charge of the academy, with a mission of preparing students, many of whom come from very different fields, to work in the construction industry.

NBR

Washington Post
Oakwood Homes, a home builder headquartered in Denver, has create a foundation that funds a new construction school. It’s called the Colorado Homebuilding Academy (now known as BuildStrong Academy). Students can enroll in a free, eight-week “boot camp” to learn how to saw, tile, drill, plaster and paint and a bunch of other skills they need to enter the construction industry.

CNBC
Inside an unassuming warehouse on the outskirts of Denver, 18 students are learning to saw, tile, drill, plaster and paint. They are mastering how to build a house. While that number might not sound like a lot, today’s homebuilders are desperate for all of them.
Also published in: NBR

CBS Denver
If there’s one thing Alexis Monserrate has, it’s vision. That’s why she came here all the way from New York for the Colorado Homebuilding Academy.“In eight weeks they really got me market-ready. Learning everything from how to read a tape measure to using power tools. It also gave me the confidence to apply for jobs like this.”

Fox News
BuildStrong Academy of Denver (formerly known as Colorado Homebuilding Academy) is a nonprofit operating in industry-donated space. Builders and grants foot the $1,400 cost of Construction Skills Boot Camp for each student who pledges to go into construction…administrators are hoping to get more women in the program. They are seeking high school graduates not bound for college, military veterans returning to civilian life and previous criminal offenders. The school expects to triple its number of graduates this year.

Builder
This year, through Oakwood’s philanthropic arm, Pat Hamill created the Colorado Homebuilding Academy, a nonprofit educational resource that provides hands-on training and job placement for workers, job seekers, and students through its own classes and partnerships with the University of Denver and Community College of Aurora. Michael Smith, the academy’s director, says the home building industry has utterly failed to attract millennials.

Denver 7
In just five weeks, Nathaniel Baldwin has come a long way from the information technology work he once knew.”I was the one that kind of kept all the servers running, kept all the websites up, that sort of thing,” Baldwin described. Today, instead of servers, he’s learning to run power tools at Colorado Homebuilding Academy.

Colorado Public Radio
Houses along the Front Range can’t be built fast enough. Part of the problem is a booming population. There’s also a shortage of construction workers to get the job done. The Colorado Homebuilding Academy is an effort to get more people to work.
Also published in: The Denver Post and Coloradoan

The Denver Post
In a large warehouse that smells of freshly cut wood in north Denver, 20 adults — including a refugee family from Somalia, a math teacher and a laid-off retail worker — gather in the unfinished frame of a house to take notes on the Pythagorean theorem.