Youth learn skills, build wood products for community
Local residents can help some young people learn an important trade while buying custom wood products at the same time.
Residents at the Adair County Youth Development Center can build picnic tables, corn toss boards, toolboxes, birdhouses and even a baseball dugout.
Anyone requesting an item pays for the materials, but most of the labor is provided at no cost. Any money donated to the program is used for the youth activity fund, which helps residents be able to rent movies, have special meals and purchase recreation equipment or supplies.
The Youth Development Center is a juvenile detention center that houses youth up through age 18. Youth are provided with educational programs to help them graduate from high school or receive a GED. Building instructor Ricky Collins works with students to teach them basic maintenance skills and the proper use of tools.
Currently youth at the program are building eight picnic tables to be used in Columbia’s parks.
The program started nine and a half years ago when the new facility opened 2001. The goal of the program is to teach the residents at the development center basic skills, like safety, in order to be employable when they leave the center.
“It’ll give me an option for a job while I’m going to college,” said a resident that participates in the program.
The residents also receive 10 hours of safety training. That’s 10 hours of training their employers will not have to pay for. The course also helps residents incorporate the math they learn at the center. It also teaches residents “what it’s like to give,” said Collins.
“If I can change the life of one child in 20 years, I consider that a success,” said Collins.
In addition to the tables, the residents in the class have also built birdhouses, a cattle feeder, benches for the roadside park, a cubicle for the Adair County Elementary School, and a dugout for the high school. In constructing the dugout, the workers adapted a dugout blueprint from Lindsey Wilson College to apply to the high school.
“I like working with my hands,” said another resident. “This gives me an opportunity to do that.”
Collins said he is a licensed electrician and plumber. His first taste of teaching came when he worked for the Lake Cumberland Area Technology Center. When the position came open at the development center, Chester Taylor, the vocational school principal, encouraged him to apply.
Anyone interested in custom made products from the center can call Dwayne Mills, the facility superintendent, at 384-0822.
In addition, the development center offers a program that allows youth to earn the ability to work outside the facility when people need a helping hand. Contact Mills for more information.
By Dean Childers
Voice Intern
