~Purpose~

HomeFires was founded for the purpose of providing training in construction skills for young people, who - for whatever reason - cannot even go to trade school. These young people may be nominated by their church or community organization, or by an individual. Hopefully the nominators will be able to sponsor the cost of the school. If not, whenever possible HomeFires will pick up the cost. No sessions have been held yet, because so far I am financing it myself, but almost 100 builders and subcontractors have pledged their assistance to teach – free, and we have the use of land for the training site.

            HomeFires will be able to offer skills training taught by masters, so that the candidates might at least be able to get a job as an assistant to subcontractors in vocations like excavation and foundations, masonry, framing, roofing - whatever we can offer at any given time.  Offered along with the skills training will be basic money counting and a little about keeping up with income and expenses. All of this will be presented under the umbrella of Christian integrity, work ethics, stewardship and accountability.

            The training will be for a period of two weeks - it's a crash course at best. At the end, a Skills Festival will be held and opened to the public. The work of the various disciplines will be open for viewing. The foundation team might build a terrace; the masonry team might build a garden wall; the framers a tool shed. The public will vote for favorite projects, and someone might even hire a team or individual to help build a real project at home.

            For the final exam all students and some supervisors will go to the home of someone whose house needs repair work. The various teams will work together to repair the house as much as possible in a weekend.

            After "graduation" the candidates will return home and hopefully get a job as an assistant on a construction site. Then, maybe someday, a candidate will nominate another young person to repeat the process.

I know these are grand plans and will be expensive to achieve and maintain. If you are interested in helping, tax deductible donations can be made by clicking on this secure link (donation). Absolutely no information is shared with any other party. HomeFires is part of a larger organization. The money is handled by an administrator, so I may never know of your gift. Please accept my gratitude here.

Thank you for your interest.

Andy Bozeman
email.